


Broken Young

by HeartyMedusa



Series: Broken [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Bad Parenting, Biotics, Broken, Broken Families, Child Abandonment, Childhood, Difficulties, Discovery, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Foul Language, Non-Graphic Child Abuse, Psychological Trauma, Running Away
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:30:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 22,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartyMedusa/pseuds/HeartyMedusa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are moments that help define or influence people. This is when we get to see what influenced Shepard and Kaidan to become the people they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

He figured that he was right around five when he started glowing and being able to manipulate things with his mind. He kept it a secret because, even at five, he knew that other kids couldn't do what he did and he knew that that made him weird.

And not the good kind of weird.

When he knew that his mom and dad were busy, he would hide out in the upstairs bathroom and play. He would sit in front of the full-length mirror just to watch himself light up.

He reminded himself of a Christmas tree.

He knew that his mom knew something had changed in him. Not his dad so much- which didn't really surprise him all that much.

There were times that he had had to run away so his parents didn't see him light up. That got increasingly harder as he got older. The nosebleeds were difficult to explain as well.

Not to mention all the things that ended up broken after he had any kind of emotional high.

It was four years after he realized he was _special_ that he was discovered.

 

* * *

 

"Kaidan!" his mother shouted from downstairs, causing him to accidentally drop a book mid-air. "Brian is here!"

Brian was one of his best-friends and Kaidan had been strongly considering letting him see his special powers.

He wondered if he was a superhero- like what he read in comics- and hoped that his friend would think so.

Kaidan bounded down the stairs and skidded to a stop at the bottom to avoid running into his dad. His father looked down at him suspiciously.

"What've you been into, Kaidan?" his father asked, his gray eyes looking his son over with a military-like stare.

"Nothing, dad," Kaidan sighed, shrugging. "Just reading."

His father shook his head disapprovingly. "You should be out with other kids your age," he muttered, walking away, "not in the house reading a book."

There was nothing that Kaidan did that his father approved of. It wasn't that his father didn't love him- Kaidan just wasn't what he expected in a son.

A few seconds later, he was leading Brian upstairs. After Kaidan shut the door to his room, he turned to his friend with a secretive smile on his face.

"I've got something neat to show you," Kaidan informed him conspiratorially.

Brian looked surprised as he sat aside the model he had brought over for the two of them to do together (it _was_ Saturday, after all).

"What is it?"

"You gotta promise you won't tell anyone," Kaidan stated. "Not your parents, no one at school, not even your _cat_!"

Brian nodded "I promise!"

Kaidan smiled widely at his friend and focused completely on the model box. He focused hard, but not hard enough to make it explode (he'd had that happen a few times).

After a few seconds, he could feel the familiar tingle of blue electricity running over his skin. Kaidan heard Brian gasp, but ignored him. It took a few more seconds, but, soon, the box holding the model floated over to Brian and landed in his lap.

"That is so cool!" Brian exclaimed after the glow faded from around Kaidan. "You're magic!"

Well, he'd been hoping his friend would say a superhero, but being magical was cool too. He grinned at Brian. "Pretty neat, huh?"

Brian nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yeah, do me next."

That gave Kaidan pause. "What?"

"Make me float like the box!"

He had never tried anything so heavy before. He didn't know the extent of his glowing powers.

What would happen if he used them on something that was alive?

Would he hurt his friend?

Would he hurt himself?

Sometimes the stuff he tried to move exploded, did he have enough control not to explode his best friend?

It didn't matter. His friend didn't think he was a freak and that pushed away all thoughts of caution.

"Don't move. Stay still," he ordered.

Brian nodded, settling more comfortable on the floor. Kaidan took a few deep breaths, relaxing his mind. After a few moments, he focused on Brian. It wasn't as easy as lifting a box and he felt a pressure begin to build.

He ignored it.

It took a while, but the glow ended up covering Brian as well and he slowly lifted off the ground- his face beaming. The pressure continued to build, but Kaidan wouldn't give in.

In that moment, he was a superhero.

“Can you make me go higher?” Brian asked excitedly.

Kaidan focused a little harder to make him rise up further in the air. When Brian rotated a little in the air, he flung out his hands- a completely automatic response- and that was when things went bad.

Brian dropped a little and that startled Kaidan. Kaidan focused harder, forcing Brian higher towards the ceiling. The pressure was getting to be too much. He was stretching his abilities. He felt something drip out of his nose at a quick rate and knew that a nosebleed had started.

He couldn’t just let Brian fall.

His vision was beginning to go blurry, but he focused on lowering his friend. He couldn’t even tell Brian to stop moving- lest he completely lose concentration. He just had to trust that he could make it through the situation with both of them in one piece.

“Kaidan,” he heard his mom from the other side of his door. Panic set in and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop glowing until after Brian was down. The door to his room opened and his mother screamed at the top of her lungs.

Brian dropped to the ground painfully, but seemed not to be overly hurt. Kaidan could hear his father bounding up the stairs as he turned to look at his terrified mother.

“Mom….”

Kaidan’s dad ran up next to his mother and took her shoulders in his hands. “What’s wrong, Renee?” he demanded.

His mother shook her head, not looking away from her son. She managed to get a hand to her mouth. It seemed that Kaidan had managed to strike his mother speechless.

He self-consciously wiped away the blood that was leaking out of his nose and looked over to make sure that Brian was okay. As it was, Brian was rubbing his rear, but seemed to be fine otherwise.

“What the hell happened, Kaidan?” his father demanded.

He looked between his mother and father. What was he supposed to say? How could he name that which he had no name for? This would be even would be even worse that wanting to sit around and read books in the eyes of his father.

“I asked you a question, Kaidan Michael,” his father growled.

There were no words.

Instead, Kaidan focused and lit up again, causing his mother to let out a small sound. He looked up helplessly at his father after he _powered down._

“How long?” his father asked quietly. Surprisingly, he didn’t sound angry. Just resigned…tired.

“Tony!” her mother gasped, pulling away from him.

“Around four years,” Kaidan admitted.

His father turned to Brian. “We’ll give you a ride home.” He looked at Kaidan. “Shoes on, son, we’re going to the hospital and get the bloody nose checked out.”

Kaidan and his mother stared at his father, stunned. “Tony?” her mother asked.

“He’s a biotic, Renee.”


	2. Chapter Two

She hid behind the couch just like she always did when the mean man came to see her mommy. He never bothered to knock- he'd just slam the door open- and she had to learn to be quick on her toes in those situations (not easy, given certain problems).

Sometimes he'd take her mommy into the bedroom and they'd make funny sounds together for a while. Then, afterwards, he'd give her mommy money and leave.

Other times, he'd come through the door and beat her mommy up until she couldn't stand. He'd spit on the floor just in front of her, lay money on the table, and leave.

Maker forbid he ever saw Mimi.

Something about the mere _sight_ of her caused his already short temper to explode. The first and only time Mimi could remember him seeing her had resulted in her mommy going to the hospital (which, as far as Mimi knew, was the only time she’d ever went).

She didn't understand why he hated her so much- she was only six (well, _almost_ six, anyway).

Anyway, that day he and her mom went into her mom's room and started making funny noises. Since it was normal for that to last a while, Mimi decided that it would be fine if she made a snack- her mommy had forgotten to make her one before the bad man came over and she was hungry.

As she was putting away the bread and other essentials, the bad man came stomping from her mommy's room and stopped mid-stride when he saw her. Mimi froze as she stared at him, waiting to see what he was going to do.

"Allison!" he shouted angrily at her mother, never looking away from Mimi. "Get your lazy, drugged ass out here!"

Mimi gripped the knife she had used behind her back, scared out of her mind. She just wanted to run, but was too afraid to make her feet work properly.

"Ryan, what is it?" her mom practically purred.

The mean man pulled his harsh glare off of Mimi and put it on her mommy. "What the hell happened to getting rid of it?" he demanded.

_It._

Mimi had been reduced from a little girl to an it- an _unwanted_ it.

Like a piece of undesirable furniture.

She waited for her mommy to defend her- give some _hint_ that she was wanted and loved.

Allison regarded her daughter emotionlessly before turning back to Ryan. "D'you have any idea how hard it is to get rid of a five-year-old that can't even walk right?"

Mimi stared at her mommy, uncomprehending. It was as though she had already tried to get rid of Mimi already but couldn’t because there was something wrong with her.

That didn't make sense.

The mean man strode forward and glared down at Mimi. "They have homes," he snapped as he reached out and gripped her left arm tightly in his large hand.

Mimi's eyes started to water and a small noise of pain escaped her mouth. "No," she gasped out.

"Oh, look, it speaks!" he laughed, a strong, bitter smell invaded Mimi's nose, and squeezed her arm tighter.

It hurt.

Her eyes darted everywhere- from her mommy to the door and back to the mean man. There was no one who would help her because, to the world, she was no one- just a speck of dirt in the entire world.

“You should have gotten rid of it as soon as you had it,” he snarled at Mimi’s mother. “It’ll never be anything but a problem- reliant on other’s to take care of it.” He gripped her chin tightly with his other hand and leaned closer so that she was practically suffocating from his acrid breath. “Just like it’s fucking father.”

That made her decision.

Mimi lashed out with the knife that had remained behind her back and stabbed the mean man on the side of the neck between the ear and shoulder. He made a funny sound before releasing her.

She had kept hold of the knife and, due to his letting her go, slit a little further down his neck before she made the decision to pull the knife out.

Mimi's mother screamed and rushed forward to try and cover the bloody gash on the mean man's neck. She was crying, murmuring to the mean man.

Mimi stared down at her hands and the knife. She realized that this was something she could never take back.

What she did was a bad thing.

She carefully sat the knife down at her feet and calmly walked to the bathroom to wash the blood off of her hands.

It didn't _feel_ like a bad thing.

With her hands clean, she went back into the kitchen and stopped a little away from her mother. Allison looked up at her through bloodshot eyes.

"He's dead," she whispered.

That meant nothing to Mimi.

She didn't understand.

She had no experience with that word.

"You killed him," Allison continued. "Get out."

"Mommy?"

Allison got to her feet and stumbled over to Mimi and slapped her across the face. Her face snapped to the side and remained there, stunned.

"Get out of my house. I don't care where you go- never come back!" Allison growled, practically throwing Mimi away from her.

Mimi's lower lip quivered. When her mother didn't take back her words, she slowly made her way out of the house in nothing but her shorts and t-shirt. She didn't even bother to put on shoes.

She had nothing and nowhere to go, so, instead, she wandered the streets- which was more than a little difficult considering she had trouble walking.

When she finally looked up, she saw a sign for the local hospital.

With nowhere left to go, she went in the general direction of the hospital to ask for help.


	3. Chapter 3

The entire ride to the hospital, he just kept repeating the word over and over again in his mind.

His weirdness had a name- something that, at the time, he loved the idea of to no end.

 ** _Biotics_**.

He was a _biotic_.

It didn't make him any less weird, but it meant that there were others like him. He wasn’t an anomaly in the entirety of the world.

While that didn't make him as special as he thought, it was still pretty awesome.

None the less, he walked with his head held high (and a bag of cookies) into the hospital behind his parents. They had been talking quietly beneath their breath the entire ride, but at least they knew what he was.

At least _he_ (sorta) knew what he was.

He was a blue-glowing boy who wasn’t alone.

As his parents went to fill out all the necessary paperwork, Kaidan noticed a little girl- probably a few years younger than him- sitting in a waiting room chair by herself.

Her blonde hair looked like it needed washed and her feet were really dirty and he thought that her parents needed to take her home and give her a good bath. She also looked too thin and very sad.

While his parents were talking to the desk nurse, he went over and smiled at her.

She looked so alone.

"Hi," Kaidan greeted her, smiling.

She looked at him with sad, lost green eyes. "'lo," she greeted quietly.

"I'm Kaidan," he informed her.

"Mimi," she answered, looking down at her clenched hands before looking back up at him.

His mom called his name and he waved at her to let her know where he was (his parents were _always_ worried about what he was doing and where he was).

"Are you sick?" she asked him quietly, looking him over carefully, her eyes lingering on the bag of cookies in his hand before looking back up into his face.

That startled him.

Was he?

Was what he was able to do a sickness- would he end up giving it to others?

Would he give his glowing- his biotics (even thinking it gave him a strange kind of thrill)- to the sad, lonely little girl?

"I don't know. I glow a funny color and make things move. 's the reason my mom and dad brought me here." Then he realized something. "Where're your mom and dad?"

Mimi's bottom lip quivered and her eyes filled up with tears. "I don't know," she whispered, looking down at her hands in her lap. "My mommy...my mommy told me to leave and so I did. I walked and walked for a long time and I found my way here. The lady called the cops.

"I must be broke," she whispered, a small tear escaping from her eyes. She ignored it, not even seeming to realize that it had fallen. "'s the only thing that makes sense. Why else would she want me to go away?"

Her small voice explaining it hurt Kaidan in a way that he had never been hurt before. At nine, he thought he knew it all. But, looking down at the shattered little girl, he realized that he was a long way from knowing everything.

After he put his bag of cookies in her lap, he took her tiny, little hands in his own and smiled at her shocked expression.

What could someone his age say to a little girl who thought that she was broken?

How could he assure her that it was her _mother_ who was broken if she had thrown her young kid out on the streets?

"Kaidan," his mom called for him and he struggled to decide what to do.

He wondered if he should leave the girl alone. There was a person who made his problems seem so insignificant. She was so vulnerable and so open.

She seemed to be able to read his indecision. "Go," she said softly, a ghost of a smile on her lips, "I'll be okay."

He squeezed her hand before letting go. "I hope things get better, Mimi."

As he turned to walk away, he heard her quiet voice whisper, "Goodbye...Kaidan."

His mother quickly took him by the hand and led his father and him into a private room.

That was when their suspicions were confirmed.

When they knew without a doubt.

He was a freak of nature.

He was a biotic.


	4. Chapter Four

Mimi sat in the hospital chair with a policeman on one side of her and a policewoman in front of her.

“My name is Officer Adam Drew,” the man introduced himself.

The woman gave her a small smile. “I’m Officer Belinda May. We’re here to talk to you.

“Now that you know our names,” the lady said gently, “can we know your name?”

She looked at the officer before looking behind her towards the door that Kaidan and his parents had disappeared behind. “Mimi,” she said quietly, wishing that she hadn’t even been put in a situation like the one she was in.

Officer May smiled and leaned forward. “How about you tell me your whole name?”

He had been back with the doctor for a long time. She wondered if he was okay. Someone as good as him...well…he deserved to not be sick. He had given her his cookies- and not just any kind of cookies, but chocolate chip! Not too many other people would have given cookies to someone like her.

“Okay, we’ll come back to that,” the officer reasoned, not losing her smile. “How old are you, Mimi?”

“Five.”

The officer took down a note. “Your birthday?”

“April 11th, 2154.”

Again, she took down a note. “Where’re your mommy and daddy, Mimi?”

“I never met my daddy,” she explained, looking down at her folded hands. “The mean man said that my daddy was just a problem and needed other people to take care of him…like I will be.”

“Who’s the mean man?”

Mimi looked up at the Officer May. “Ryan- he’s mommy’s friend.” She paused. “Well, he _was_ mommy’s friend. Mommy said he was dead.”

The other cop- Officer Drew- leaned forward. “How’d he die?” he asked.

“I put a knife into his neck,” she said simply, emphasizing her words with a shrug. When the officers both leaned back, she rubbed her arm where he had gripped it. “He was hurting me. I had to stop him.”

They both sat quietly for a minute. “Who’s your mommy?” Officer May prompted.

“Her name is Allison.”

“Do you know your address or phone number, Mimi?” the lady asked softly.

Mimi ignored the question. “I know why my mommy sent me away- and it’s not just because of Ryan,” she informed them, twisting her fingers anxiously.

“Why?”

“I’m broken. I told Kaidan, but he didn’t believe me.” She looked up at the cops. “Is that why my mommy doesn’t love me? She never did, you know. I can’t walk right.”

Officer May took Mimi’s hands in her own. “Did she send you away?”

“Mommy told me to leave- so I did. I walked and walked and walked- ‘s not easy since I don’t walk good,” she pointed out. “I know hospitals are asposed to help people, so I came here.” Mimi looked up at the woman after she pulled her hands out of hers. “Please don’t send me back.”

Kaidan walked out from the doors and met her eyes and gave her a small encouraging smile. He gave her a small wave. Since he was smiling, she supposed that he wasn’t sick. His mommy and daddy though…they looked like _they_ were sick as they talked to the lady behind the counter. She wanted to get up and go talk to him.

“We’re going to try to find your mommy, Mimi and see if we can get this fixed,” Officer May said gently.

She shook her head and fought against the tears. “It won’t be different. Mommy doesn’t love me. She’ll just give me up. I’m just a broken girl from a broken mommy.”

That quieted both of the officers. “I’ll be right back,” she murmured, sliding out of her chair and to her feet.

Her walk over to him was slow and awkward- as most of her walking was. She had a strange sort of limp that she could always remember having. If she stood too long, her legs would hurt and she’d fall down.

Maybe the mean man had been right.

Maybe she would be nothing more than a problem for everyone else to worry about.

Maybe she was forever broken.

She stopped in front of Kaidan and smiled up at him. He was quite a bit taller than her and was a whole lot cleaner. None-the-less, he smiled down at her.

“Not sick?” she asked quietly… _hopefully_.

“Nope.”

Mimi nodded and took off her necklace that had a small M on it. It was old and didn’t have any of the shiny bits still in it, but she had found it in the streets a few years before and had kept it. She stared down at it before taking Kaidan’s hand and putting the necklace in it. He stared at her, confused.

“I want you to promise,” she informed him.

“Promise what?”

“To everyone everywhere, I am not rememberable and I never will be,” she whispered, not looking into his warm eyes. “I need someone to remember me- just one person.”

Kaidan’s hand closed over the necklace and he cupped her chin with his other hand. She looked up at him, startled. “I promise.”

She looked back over her shoulder and then back to Kaidan. “Thank you,” she whispered before turning and slowly making her way back over to the officers.

After she sat down and watched Kaidan leave with his mommy and daddy, she nodded and looked at the cops. “My name is Memory Jordana Shepard. Please don’t make me go back to my mommy,” she pleaded.


	5. Chapter Five

His mother fussed over him the next day as he was getting ready to go to school. Rather than helping him, like she assumed, she was doing little more than getting in the way and being a nuisance. While getting dressed, she started straightening his clothes and fussing over his hair and his decision of an outfit.

She even woke him up half an hour before was necessary- but, at least, she had the decency to make eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast. However, she couldn’t stop herself from flitting around as Kaidan and his father ate silently at the table. Kaidan had realized on the way home from the hospital that his biotics were not something to be discussed.

“For god’s sake, Renee,” his father snapped- something that almost never happened…at least not where Kaidan could hear. As a rule, his parents didn’t fight, raise their voices at each other, or anything else like that. When his mother froze in her tracks at his voice, he continued, “Sit down.”

Kaidan’s mother lowered her head slightly and shuffled over to the table and sat down. It was so quiet in the house that it practically hurt Kaidan’s head. They ate in silence until Kaidan was almost finished.

His father sat down his fork on the table and stared at Kaidan in silence for a while. “Kaidan,” his father began, “you found out something… _big_ yesterday.” Kaidan had gotten the impression that his parents were upset over the revelations of his abilities- the complete opposite of him.  “We need to talk about it before you go to school.”

“Okay,” he shrugged, agreeably.

His parents stared at each other for a few seconds before Kaidan’s mom took his hand in her own. “Kaidan, human biotics are still really new,” she informed him quietly. “We’re not like the Asari. A lot of humans fear biotics.”

“I haven’t done anything bad!” Kaidan exclaimed, hoping to convince his parents the truth. “I won’t ever hurt anyone!”

Without thinking, his hand drifted to his pocket where the _M_ necklace was.

Maybe he was broken- just in a different way than Mimi thought she was….

…except, she was broken too.

He had watched her walk.

“Oh, baby, we’re not saying you have,” his mother assured him, squeezing the hand she held. “That’s just what people think.” She looked helplessly at his father.

“What the point _is_ ,” his father informed him, “it wouldn’t do any good to tell everyone. You need to keep this to yourself.”

Kaidan didn’t understand. What he had made him special. “Why?”

His father ran his hands through his own hair. “Just listen to me, Kaidan.”

“I kept it to myself since I was five, Dad. It’s a lot easier than you think.”

 _Five_.

Like little Mimi with those sad, green eyes and unwashed blonde hair.

Since his father had muttered the word biotic, Kaidan knew that his father was disappointed. He didn’t hate his son, but Kaidan would never be normal. That’s all that Anthony Alenko wanted for his son.

It’s not like Renee could have any more children.

The three of them sat at the table in increasingly uncomfortable silence. Finally, Renee was back to her feet and was hurryingly grabbing her purse. “Come on, baby, we don’t want you being late to school, now do we?”

Kaidan looked longingly at the garage door where his bike was, but sighed, knowing that his mom would never let him ride his bike that day. “Just let me go get my bag, mom,” he said quietly, his shoulders falling slightly. He left the kitchen after his mother nodded.

He didn’t get too far before he heard his mother and father start a heated discussion. “You don’t understand, Renee,” he insisted. “He’ll be an outcast- a freak. This has to be from the transport crash in Singapore.”

“It doesn’t matter, Tony. He is our son. You can’t expect me to-“

Kaidan heard a sound that resembled a fist hitting the table, effectively interrupting his mother. “There is only one place that someone like him would be accepted.”

“Tony-“

“At this point, we’ll be lucky if the hospital hasn’t informed him to the Alliance- all doctors are required to report the Brass if there is even a possibility that a kid has biotic tendencies.”

Kaidan heard his mother gasp. “Do you think they’ll pick him up at school- imagine the spectacle that that’ll make!”

He could practically visualize his father taking Kaidan’s mother into his arms and squeeze her reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Renee, we’ll figure this out.”

His chin fell to his chest and any remnant of pride in his ability evaporated. He had never intended to cause so much stress for his parents. He shuffled to his room to grab his bag before he heard anything else.


	6. Chapter Six

After they had given Mimi a shower and new clothes, she was fed a big meal- the biggest she could ever remember having- with shiny spoons and forks. They said that the strange thing with meat and cheese on it was a hamburger. After taking a hearty bite, she decided that it was good and kept eating it. Along with it were some kind of sticks to dip into red sauce- which they informed her was called French fries and ketchup. Those were good too. She didn’t use the spoon or fork and wasn’t even sure why they gave them to her in the first place.

They took her blood and then gave her an application of something they called “medi-gel” and fixed up the hole where blood came out.

She looked up at Officer May and said, “Should’ve had some of this to fix the hole in Ryan.” In response, the officer turned very pale.

Mimi figured that the officer just didn’t like blood. Mimi, personally, didn’t really have a problem with it…until it started drying.

Then it got sticky.

After a few hours, they had told her that they couldn’t give her back to her mommy because her mommy was dead just like Ryan.

Oh, they phrased it differently than that, something like, “Mimi, your mommy has to go to the same place as Ryan.”

She didn’t quite know what that meant. She didn’t even know where Ryan went.

So, in response, she had asked, “Did she have a knife in her neck too?”

“No,” they had assured, “she was very sick.”

Sick.

Her mommy had never been sick.

Beat up and bruised, sure.

Sick?

No.

They were lying to her. She had been around her mommy every day. It’s not like Mimi went anywhere. Her mommy said that the outside was filled with bad people who were…well… _bad_.

Then again, she invited a mean man into the house to make funny noises with.

They had left her in a room all by herself and went out into the hallway. She snuck up to the door and listened. She knew that it was a bad thing to do, but she couldn’t stop herself. Even if her mommy didn’t have a knife in her neck, she was still whatever _dead_ was. So, she listened at the door.

“What are we going to do, Adam?” Officer May asked quietly.

“You know what we have to do. She has to go to one of the orphanages,” Officer Drew stated calmly.

That was a weird word, one Mimi had never heard before.

_Orphanages._

She wondered what it meant.

“D’you think she has a chance of getting adopted?” Officer May asked hopefully.

There was a slight pause before Mimi heard a sigh from Officer Drew. “Belinda, the girl can’t walk right. No one wants to adopt a kid that can’t even _appear_ normal. No, she’ll stay until she’s eighteen.”

“The girl’s mother was a druggie- overdosing on a cocktail of drugs. You think that that’s what happened to her? Exposure to some kind of drug en-urtero?”

 “Hell, for all we may know, her mother could’ve gotten exposed to element zero when she was pregnant and, instead of developing biotics, the kid just got screwed up legs. It could’ve been worse, though, Bee- she could’ve got a brain tumor.”

So many new words.

She hated that she didn’t know what they were talking about.

“Any way we can find the father?”

“We ran a DNA profile through the extra-net and we came back with no hits. God only knows who the hell the man is.” Mimi could image Officer Drew shrugging (even though she didn’t know what DNA or extra-net was). “We have to take her to one of the orphanages. We’re just waiting on authorization from the Captain and confirmation of at least one opening.”

“You know there’re only two outcomes from this, don’t you?” Officer May asked, sounding very tired. “She’ll either join a gang or she’ll be a dependent on the system until the very end.”

Mimi hated Officer May for saying that. Well, not the gang part (she didn’t know what that was), but the part about being reliant on other people. All because she couldn’t walk.

She wanted to prove her, and everyone who thought like her and Ryan, wrong.

“This isn’t going to be our problem, Belinda.”

“It will be when we pick her up on gang-related charges.”


	7. Chapter 7

Kaidan had never been filled with such nervousness as he was the first day of school after the visit to the hospital. All he could think of was what his parents had said- specifically his father.

Outcast.

**_ Freak. _ **

Every loud noise spooked him- leading him to look wildly in whatever direction the sound had come from. He was worried that _they_ (which he assumed was the Alliance) were around every corner, ready to take him away to whoever knows where.

It may have been his imagination, but he could practically _feel_ everyone’s eyes on him.

Like they knew.

The first time he saw his friend, Brian, was at lunch. He wondered if he still thought that Kaidan was still _cool_ and _magic._ Taking his tray over, he sat down at the table and smiled at his friend.

“Hey, Kaidan,” Brian said slowly, seemingly worried. “Everything okay?”

Kaidan glanced around the table and shrugged. “Mom and dad got into an argument this morning.”

Brian’s mouth dropped open a little. “Really?” he gasped. “About what?”

Kaidan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Dunno,” he lied.

“Was it about your-“

Kaidan shushed him. “You promised, man.”

Brian frowned at him, but didn’t finish his sentence. “Well, was it about _that_?”

“Yeah. It was about that.”

“You worried?” Brian asked, taking a big, nonchalant bite out of his burger.

What could Kaidan say? Should he tell the truth that he was more terrified than he could ever remember being? Could he say that he was worried that his parent’s would do what Mimi’s mom did to her- just throw him out to fend for himself? He unconsciously rubbed the necklace in his pocket through his jeans. What was he supposed to say to someone who knew his darkest secret?

Kaidan laughed, coolly. “Afraid of what?” he snorted. “Afraid of my awesomeness?”

Brian chuckled, rolled his eyes, and left the topic alone.

Kaidan had never been so glad to lie than he was in that moment.

 

The day had gone on way too. Kaidan had never been so happy as to walk home.

However, when he came to his door, he could hear shouting inside.

“Damn it, he’s _not_ going!” his mother shouted. “You’ll have to arrest me before I’ll let you take him!”

“Renee,” his father tried to soothe her, “let’s talk about this.”

“Absolutely not!”

He felt her chin lower to his chest. He didn’t mean for his parents to start fighting.

Then he heard a new voice.

“Mrs. and Commander Alenko,” the voice said, the very epitome of calm, “I know this is a very trying time for your family. The Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training program is the best place for people with biotics to learn how to harness and control their powers. The Alliance is currently developing an implant that would aid in the ability to further control a person’s biotics.”

Kaidan heard something break. “I don’t give two damns and a fuck!” his mother shouted and Kaidan winced from her words. “You are not taking my son to some damned station out in the middle of space!”

He backed away from his door, his eyes wide as he shook his head.

 _No,_ he thought, wondering where he could go to run.

Suddenly he stopped as he hit…something. Turning around, he looked up into the face of three men wearing Alliance uniforms. He turned and quickly ran into his house- not even considering that there was another talking to his parents. He slammed the door and stared into the faces of his two surprised parents and that of an Alliance soldier.

“Hello,” the man said easily, “you must be Kaidan.”

His mother hurried forward and grabbed him only to push him behind her. “You aren’t taking him. He’s staying here.” She looked over to her husband. “Tony, please.”

Kaidan’s father stared hard down at the ground. He was not exactly happy about the situation he was put in. “Renee, I can’t interfere with an Alliance directive,” he muttered.

“You’re _retired_ ,” she reminded him.

“It doesn’t matter, Renee.” He walked over to her and tried to take her hand. “You have to let them take him. He needs to learn.”

“No.”

Kaidan stared at the ground and then nodded to himself.

It didn’t matter that he was more scared than he had ever been.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t know when he’d next see his parents.

He knew that it was up to him to stop the fighting between his parents.

And there was only way to do that.

“Okay,” he said a little loudly, just to be heard over his parents. Everyone quieted and looked at him. “Okay. I’ll go.”

Renee covered her mouth as the tears that had been held back fell free. Tony nodded at his son- knowing that he didn’t decide to go because he wanted to, but because he needed to.

That was the first time Kaidan could remember seeing such respect for him in his father’s eyes.

“Just let me go pack.”


	8. Chapter 8

Mimi followed after Officer May as quickly as she could. Sometimes she hated that she couldn't walk right- couldn't keep up with everyone else around her. Before, she had never thought anything about it because her mommy never let her around other people.

The other children- who were all different ages- all looked at her sadly…as though she was being given a bad thing.

She didn't understand.

Mimi noticed that they all had brown and purple splotches on their skin as well as scratches.

Officer May hurried them into a room away from the eyes of the other children and sat her down on a chair in front of a desk and a man.

"Nathan," Officer May said, almost without any kind of emotion of all. That was weird to Mimi.

"Belinda."

"This is the girl we talked about. Her name is Memory Jordana Shepard- she's five."

Nathan leaned forward and eyed Mimi over like a piece of meat. He seemed to focus mainly on her blond hair- and that was when Mimi realized that she hadn't seen anyone with blond hair since she had left home.

"She's a pretty little thing- shame about her walk," he sneered. "I'll take her."

Mimi looked quickly to Officer May who continued to look at Nathan, except her expression turned to one of disgust.

"Put her in the beginning kindergarten class- I doubt she knows how to even spell her name."

The meeting was long and had a bunch of words that Mimi didn't understand before Officer May stood and smiled reassuringly at Mimi. "You'll be just fine here, okay?"

Like she had any other choice but to nod.

Nathan came around his desk and laid a heavy hand on Mimi's shoulder. "Come now, Memory, let's go meet your new friends."

 

* * *

 

Mimi sat by herself in a little corner, watching as all the other kids talked to each other and sometimes hit each other. She didn't understand the rules in this place.

Where was she supposed to fit in?

A kid, probably about Kaidan's age, spotted her and walked over.

"What's your name, girl?" he demanded.

"Mimi," she informed him, wishing that he would go away. He wasn't nice like Kaidan had been.

The boy looked her up and down. "What d'you do to get put in here?"

She wondered what she was supposed to say. What was supposed to tell the truth? Lie? No one told her what to say!

"I killed my mommy's boyfriend," she said matter-of-factly.

The boy stared at her with a look between disbelief and awe. "Oh yeah? How'd you do that?"

Mimi realized that she had to let him know that she wouldn't take his crap. He was here to figure out where she belonged in this place. She slowly got to her feet and stepped close to him so that they would have been chest-to-chest if she wasn't shorter than him. She raised her head and an eyebrow. She had seen people act like this on TV- the people on the TV shows called them badasses (whatever that meant).

"I stuck a knife into his neck," she informed him quietly and ran a finger along his neck in the place she had stabbed Ryan, "and pulled it down. He bled to death in our living room."

The boy stepped back and stared at her with wide eyes. After a few moments, he nodded. He thrust out his hand for her to take and said, "The name's Finch- Toby Finch."

She realized that she had been accepted. She then had a place in the place she was stuck at. "Shepard- Mimi Shepard."


	9. Chapter 9

Kaidan stared out the window of the shuttle that was taking him somewhere far away from Earth and his parents. Okay, so it wasn’t like they were taking him through a relay, but it was the furthest he had ever been away from his home planet.

He had been more than a little nervous when they broke atmo. His dad had told stories before…well…the mess that he was currently in…about the ease of entering and exiting atmo. He said that, the better the pilot, the less noticeable it would be.

The shuttle must have had a horrible pilot because he swore he felt every single bump.

Kaidan had always dreamed of going to space- not like he was doing at the time, but still going to space. He had read the books and watched the vids.

What he would have given to have the opportunity of saving the galaxy from some unknown that threatened their very existence. Recently, he had even started thinking that he’d like to save the girl. Not just any girl- but _the_ girl. Someone who could give him something that compared to his mom and dad.

Kaidan could all but imagine himself at the head of some ship- the commanding officer. He would be dressed in those fancy dress blues (that he now kind of hated) standing beside the pilot and telling them where to go.

It was up to them to save _her_ \- his her.

He didn’t have a particular her in mind…per se. In the last few days, though, he kept imagining a little blonde with sad, green eyes.

She needed to be saved more than anyone else he had ever known.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” a small voice asked.

He turned his head quickly and was surprised to see a pretty, brunette sitting beside of him. “It’s something,” he shrugged. “’s a lot different than back on Earth looking at the stars through the atmosphere.”

The girl nodded, leaning forward to get a better look. “This is my first time away from Earth.”

Kaidan noted the accent, but said nothing. It wasn’t excessive, but it was definitely not anything he had heard before. “Mine too,” he admitted, looking away from her.

“I’m Rahna, by the way,” she introduced, a smile evident in her voice.

“Kaidan.”

There was a slight rustling sound and Kaidan was sure that she had left, but then she asked, “So, where’re you from, Kaidan?”

He turned back to her and gave a small smile. “Vancouver. You?”

“Turkey. My mother and father weren’t pleased when the Alliance showed up and demanded that I be taken to the Gagarin station.”

Kaidan said nothing on how his parents reacted. That still touched too much of a nerve. “So you’re a biotic, too?”

She nodded happily. “Yes. I didn’t start glowing until a few months ago. Momma and Poppa wanted to keep it as hush, hush as possible. Unfortunately, I kind of lit up in the middle of my World History class when a boy started kicking me.”

“Yeah, my started four years ago when I was five. My parents didn’t find out until a few days ago.”

Her mouth formed a little ‘o’. “Wow. It must have been horrible keeping a secret from your parents like that!” She waited for a moment before she realized he wasn’t going to answer her. “I’m eight, by the way.”

There was something about Rahna that made Kaidan like her. He wanted to just sit and be miserable, but he couldn’t. She was everything he imagined that imaginary _her_ to be. She was pretty, kind, soft-spoken, and there was some kind of vulnerability in her that he couldn’t quite place.

And she was just like him.

 _“We are approaching the Gagarin Station, so please be seated and fasten your buckles. Thank you for flying with us,”_ a kind, chipper voice said over the shuttle’s comm.

Kaidan looked over to see Rahna fastening her seatbelt with a nervous expression on her face. “Even though it’s pretty, I don’t like flying in space. I just keep imagining all the bad stuff- like getting sucked out into space and stuff,” she shuttered.

After fastening his seatbelt, Kaidan slowly reached over and took her hand in his. When she looked at him in surprise, he simply said, “I’ll hold on so you don’t go anywhere alone.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, a small smile evident through her fear.

Yeah, Kaidan was pretty sure that Rahna was the perfect _her._


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, we’re going to skip over some time. This is kind of a dark chapter including attempted child rape. This is kind of a transitional chapter that leads to the next chapter of Shepard’s life.

Time had gone by. She never really celebrated her birthday- Finch always managed to get (meaning _steal_ ) her something. The year of her twelfth birthday was no different.

She stood in the shower room and stared at her steamed reflection.

Recently, Finch and the other boys had started looking at her different. They had even begun touching her in some way as she walked by. Oh, nothing bad, but it was a brush on her hand, her arm, anything. Finch, however, was bolder. He had taken to cupping her butt and grasping her chest.

Mimi was the only one in the orphanage with blonde hair. She didn’t really understand why. That was the only thing that she could think of that would make the focus fall onto her. She brushed said blonde hair from her face and gave a small smile- something that she didn’t do much of. Not a real smile, anyway.

She had developed a signature _smile_ that everyone knew meant that she was starting to get angry and she was giving them one last warning. In her time since she was five, she had developed a bit of a reputation. No one in the orphanages messed with her, and, if they did, they didn’t for very long.

As it were, she and Finch (but mostly her) had a group of… _followers_ would be the best word. They looked past her limp.

She almost felt like she belonged.

“Memory,” a low voice said from the doorway.

Mimi spun around to face the head of the orphanages, not liking the way his eyes wandered over her towel-clad body. “Mr. Nathan,” she answered, trying not to let her nervousness show.

Nathan slowly made his way to her and laid his hands on her all-but-bare hips and turned her back around so that she was facing the mirror again with him standing close to flush against her back- a bulge pressing into her back.

“You are absolutely beautiful,” he murmured, running one hand up her side and finally met bare skin under her arm. “You’ve really grown up.”

“Mr. Nathan,” she all but whimpered in fear, trying to step away from him. Unfortunately, his hands kept her in place. “I don’t-“

“Quiet now, girl,” he snapped, turning her around and pressing her back against the cool stone of the wall. “I’ve made sure you’ve had what you’ve needed for years. It’s about time you paid me back.”

One of his large hands wrapped around her throat as he pressed his lips against hers and forced her mouth to open.

She couldn’t breathe. She understood enough to know what his intentions were.

There were no options that she could think of. The last time a full-grown man had messed with her, she had a knife in her hand and she was able to put a permanent stop to him. She didn’t have anything close to sharp anywhere near her this time. She was naked save for a towel.

The sound of his zipper was enough to get her brain moving in over-drive.

His tongue was still in her mouth, so she bit down as hard as she could, tasting blood. He yanked back, his hands instantly going to his mouth. She gave him her practically patented _Shepard Smirk_. Stepping forward and snapping her knee up into his groin.

“How’s that for payback, asshole?” she sneered as he fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

Grabbing her clothes from where she had sat them on the ledge of the sink, she darted out into the hall as quickly as she could and ran promptly into Toby who grabbed her by her upper arms. “Mimi, what the hell?”

She gasped and pulled out of his grip. “I’m leaving. I’ve got to leave. Nathan…Nathan….” She found herself struggling for breath. Toby simply nodded and pulled her into the girl’s dorm.

“Get dressed,” he ordered. “We’ll leave as soon as you’re finished,” he informed her matter-of-factly.

She quickly pulled on her clothes- struggling somewhat with her pants as she always did and ended up falling into Finch’s back. Stumbling forward, he made a small growl and turned around to help keep her steady.

Of course, that didn’t actually require him to stare at her bra-covered chest.

“Get your shoes on, Mimi,” he ordered, grabbing the pair of earrings that he had just given to her.

As she pulled her boots on, she stated, “You don’t have to come with me. This is my problem, Toby.”

He helped her to her feet and pressed a kiss on her temple. “Mimi, _you_ are my problem.”

Well, for that, she had no response.

Toby pulled her quickly through the halls towards his secret exit. “Where’re we going to go?” she asked quietly.

“Does it matter?” he demanded. “Won’t anything be better than here?”

He had a point- one that she couldn’t even argue.

 “Let’s go.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Attention: Biotic students in class A are to report to Dining Hall B in ten minutes. Attendance is mandatory,” a monotonous, droning voice informed them over the comm system.

Kaidan looked over to Rahna and saw her already looking at him with a smirk on her face. Most of the time, the officers on the station treated them like nothing but nuisances. The rest of the time, they treated them (and expected them to act) like Alliance soldiers.

Over the years, Rahna had really grown into herself, developing into a beautiful girl- not that she’d ever been _not_ beautiful. Since their first meeting, Kaidan had taken to making sure that she was safe.

The doctors said that they were too young for an implant, so they called the exercises _conditioning._ Rahna wasn’t a particularly powerful biotic, but Conatix doctors just wouldn’t stop pushing. She had broken her bones so many times that she was lucky that medicine had come so far.

Kaidan had taken to secretly helping her along. He could tell when she was reaching the limits of her abilities- something that the doctors either could tell or just didn’t care- and would give the object a little biotic push of his own. That was just something that Kaidan felt the need to do- Rahna never asked, and she never would have to.

He had long ago decided that she would be his _her_. The hero in all of the stories always saved and protected the girl.

Problem was that all of the guys in their little circle did the same thing. Every single one of them wanted to protect her.

“Come on, Kaidan,” Rahna urges him, pulling on his hand so that he’ll follow her. “Remember, _attendance is mandatory._ ” She giggled and Kaidan was certain that there was no better sound in the entire galaxy.

Kaidan walked by her side, reveling in the fact that she had yet to let go of his hand. “Hey, Rahna,” he said slowly, thinking his words through down to the letters, “I have an idea.”

Rahna glanced up at him and Kaidan found himself caught in her warm, brown eyes. “What is it?” she asked sweetly.

“What d’you say about being my girlfriend?” he asked quickly, running the words all into one sentence, blushing florescent red.

She smiled, but looked confused. Unsure, she raised their joined hands for him to see. “I kind of thought I already was,” she admitted. “We hold hands, we’re always together, and you make sure that I don’t get hurt.”

He hadn’t considered that. “Okay. So…you’re my girlfriend,” he repeated.

“I am your girlfriend,” she confirmed.

Nodding, he smiled. “Okay. We should probably get into the dining hall.”

 

* * *

 

Once the entire class (which only consisted of four boys and two girls- including Rahna and Kaidan) took their seats and began talking among themselves, a fierce, angry-looking Turian made his way into the center of the room in front of them. He eyed every single one of them with a look of predation.

“I do not believe that you were given permission to sit,” he snapped.

They all looked at each other and slowly made their way to their feet. This was the first time any of them had ever seen a Turian in anything but a holo or vid.

The Turian remained stock-still with his hands behind his back, with nothing but his eyes moving over them. “You all are undisciplined,” he informed them, “and that needs to be remedied. From now on, when it comes to training periods, you will remain standing at attention until I have released you to stand at ease.”

He stopped in front of Kaidan and stared down at him with unblinking eyes. “You, boy, what’s your name?” he demanded of Kaidan.

Not looking away from the Turian’s cold eyes, he stated, “Kaidan Alenko.”

“No,” the Turian snapped. “The proper way to speak to a superior is _sir._ ”

Kaidan bit his tongue from saying something that he might regret. Instead, he simply said, “Alright. Kaidan Alenko, _sir_.”

The Turian’s mandibles twitched but he didn’t comment further on the sarcasm that was clearly evident in Kaidan’s tone. The Turian took a step back and raised his chin and simply stated, "I was at the helm of the dreadnought that killed your father.”

Kaidan felt, more than saw, a few of his classmates stiffen from the Turian’s words. Without thinking, he retorted, “My father wasn’t even in the war- he’d retired to Vancouver by that time.”

The Turian’s mandibles twitched in a slightly different way (one that Kaidan was sure was a way of expressing a frown) and nodded curtly before going back to the center of the area in front of them.

“My name is Commander Vyrnnus. You shall either address me as Commander or Sir. I am your new instructor and expect nothing less than hard work. You may all leave, save for Alenko.”

As the other five left, giving him sympathetic looks, Vyrnnus stalked up to him and glared down at him. “You, _boy_ , have something of an attitude.”

“Nothing of the sort, _sir_ , I was merely stating fact.”

Vyrnnus glared down at him (or, at least, Kaidan _assumed_ it was a glare). “I hear you’re a damn good biotic,” he stated. Before Kaidan could even reply, he let out a cold, humorless laugh. “I don’t believe that any human is a good biotic. Due to your attitude, you dinner rations have been halved for a week. If you attempt to get food from the others, theirs will be halved as well. You are dismissed.”

Kaidan walked from the room, slightly worried. The amount of food that he was given for each meal was never enough anyway, half would be horrible.

Well.

Damn.


	12. Chapter 12

Mimi stood in the very middle of the alley between Tenth and Eleventh Streets with her eyes closed.

During her time at the orphanage, she had learned that she could _see_ things better without using her eyes. It was difficult to explain, but it was something that her group of friends- well, not really _friends_ , but the equivalent- called _Shepard Sight._

Since she was the smallest of the group (a bunch of her friends had followed when she and Finch had left the orphanage) and the only one with an ostentatious appearance (blond hair was, indeed, a rarity due to the trait being a genetically recessive one), not to mention that she was a girl, she was the bait.

She could practically feel Finch shifting from foot to foot in an alcove further down the alley and Curt Weisman fiddling with the knife that he’d found in the trash. She needed to push them from her mind as she searched and waited for an anomaly.

Five minutes later she felt it.

At the end of the alley, on the eleventh street side, she knew that there was a potential threat entering. Turning around slowly so that she faced him, she pulled anxiously on her hair and stumbled forward (thankful, for once, for her limp and seemingly weak appearance). When the kid- probably a little older than Finch- started walking down the alley, she forced a few tears from her eyes as she stumbled towards him.

“Help,” she rasped out, forcing an extra stumble into her walk. “Please.”

The boy stopped and eyed her with a half-smirk that informed her that he would never help her- even had she _actually_ needed it. Her hand twitched a little, but she hid it by pulling a little on her blond hair in apparent fear and nervousness.

“Stop where you are,” he ordered.

Mimi knew that she had to let him think that he was in control. She fought the urge to reach for the knife in her back pocket, and halted. She looked up at him with wide, seemingly innocent eyes.

She could feel Finch, Curt, Frank, and Jordan (the only other four she allowed on the mission, the others were back at their base) begin to bristle with anticipation, and held a flattened hand down to make sure that they stayed steady and waited for her signal.

“What’s your name, Blondie?” he demanded, walking closer to her until he was uncomfortably in her space.

Fighting the urge to strike out, she kept her voice meek as she murmured, “JoJo. Please, I just need help.”

He ghosted his hand down her left cheek and leaned forward. Clinching her fists at her side, she waited until he looked back down at her. His blood-shot, brown eyes eyed her as he brought his hands back to his side.

This was it.

This was going to be the move.

The next few minutes would change everything forever.

Mimi knew, without a doubt, that he was going for a knife that was stashed in the back of his pants- if not a gun- and she didn’t consider his life (or anyone’s, really) more important than hers. She just needed something to eat- whether he provided the money or just a candy bar, he _was_ going to help.

She refused to signal for the guys.

This was something that she had to do to prove her dominance- to secure her leadership.

This was no longer the little leagues at the orphanage- these were matters of life or death and they needed to know that she wouldn’t blink in the sight of danger.

The guy in front of her lunged out with his knife. It might even have been harmful had she not anticipated it and used her own knife to stab into his outstretched arm. He stared at her, surprised, as his knife fell to the ground. Jerking her knee upward, she caught him squarely in his unprotected testicles and allowed him to drop to the ground.

Smiling the patented _Shepard Smirk_ , she circled him, letting the light glisten on the metal and his blood. Finally, as her boys all came from their respected shadows, she knelt down beside the guy and wiped his blood onto his shirt.

She could see the respect in their eyes.

There would be no questioning her authority from then on out.

“What’s your name?” she demanded. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he struggled for breath. “Come now,” she purred, “you don’t want to force me to _make_ you tell me, do you?”

“Aaron,” he gasped out, grasping to cover the knife wound.

Mimi nodded before standing up. She gestured for her boys to come forward. “Clean him out. Let him live,” she ordered.

As she began to walk away, back towards Tenth Street, Aaron gasped out, “Who are you?”

This was also another defining moment.

Mimi was now the unquestioning leader of her little band of misfits. She knew that they needed a name.

A name that was so innocuous as to keep law officers from getting too suspicious, but something that represented them.

She paused long enough to say, over her shoulder, “The Tenth Street Reds,” before continuing on her way- not even looking back as she heard her boys begin their search and seizure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For those who might be worried, the story isn’t over. Nope. It’s just getting started. No worries my lovelies.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is a warning to all of my readers. This fic touches some sensitive topics (which, if you’ve made it this far, you’re well aware) and this chapter is no different. Drug use is mentioned in this chapter, so beware.
> 
> Also, I didn’t go back to Kaidan for this chapter because this was crying to be told. It’s not even, quite, from Shepard’s perspective, but hang in there with me.
> 
> Enjoy! I love comments and suggestions!

Once back in their…well…it couldn’t exactly be called _home_ , but it was where they stayed every night, Toby and the boys went about distributing their prize to the others. The money, of course, had gone straight to Mimi, but everything else she let her people get the first pick.

That was something that Toby didn’t understand about his little Mimi- she didn’t know that she had been claimed by him, but he had. Oh, her taking the money was understandable.

She was the leader of their little band of misfits and she would make sure that the money was used smartly as opposed to just wasting it.

She was pretty smart for a twelve-year-old girl.

As the gang picked through what they had taken off of Aaron- which was more than they expected but still not enough-, Toby took the time to look at Mimi.

Or, look _for_ her at least.

It took several seconds, but he eventually spotted her in a shadowed corner on the other side of the warehouse they were using for their base. Toby didn’t even have to see her eyes to know that she was watching the entrances as well as her followers.

It was as though she were a mother lion watching and protecting her cubs.

Ah, but who protects the lioness? Toby wondered idly, bending over to pick up a small bag containing something that everyone liked to call red gold- something the rest of the world called Red Sand.

She may not want to take for herself, but he would take for her.

Strutting over to her, he smiled down at her, standing in her view of the warehouse. She eyed him expressionlessly, not saying a word.

“Oh, Divine Leader, might you let me be graced by standing in your presence?” he drawled, letting his eyes wonder up and down her small, lithe figure.

Were it not for her bum leg, she’d’ve been absolutely perfect. Maybe her bum leg was the Maker’s way of reminding the world that she was human and not some Goddess sent down to grace the world.

Mimi just eyed him, almost as though she were taking in a threat level. With a small nod- just a jerk of her head, really-, she stepped slightly to the side and gestured for him to sit. It wasn’t until he had that she sat down as well, her eyes being drawn from him to continue her visual patrol.

“So, _JoJo_?” he asked after realizing that she wasn’t going to strike up a conversation with him.

With barely a glance at him, she shrugged her small shoulders. “They don’t need to know my name. Anyway, Mimi is the name from another life- a life of semi-innocence and one with potential hope. I think I’ll go by Jo now.”

“You don’t have hope anymore, Mi…Jo?”

She looked at him, her eyes never wavering from him. “Do you know what I see now, Toby?” she asked him after a few moments of silence.

“No, what d’you see?”

“I see Curt attempting- and failing- to make Ana over there realize that he wants her. I see Pete and Frank trying to not be so obvious while watching you talk to me. I see every single entrance point in the warehouse. I can even see how difficult it’s going to be for a while before we get set up good enough to not have to worry about where our next meal is gonna come from. Toby, I see damn near everything except for one thing.” She paused and looked away from him back to her followers. “I don’t see how any of this is going to lead to a better life for any of us.”

Well, Toby really didn’t have a reply for that.

In that moment, the little twelve-year-old Mimi sounded like a wise, a very tired adult Jo.

Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he held up the small bag so that she could see. “Wanna try it?”

“I don’t know what _it_ is.”

Toby went about grabbing a piece of steel that was leaning up against the wall beside of them and laid it out in front of the two of them before emptying the bag out on it and dividing it into two, somewhat straight, lines.

“You sniff it,” he informed her before doing just that. He snorted the entire line closest two him and shook his head from the sudden onset of…ecstasy that burned through his entire being. He wiped away the excess powder from his nose and licked it off of his fingers- not wanting to waste a single bit of it.

Never in his life had he felt so…so good.

His little Mimi, or Jo, or whatever the hell she was going by, eyed him curiously as he stood up and just took a deep, fulfilling breath. He felt like he could walk on water and sing for joy.

Then he felt the crackling of…energy…building up under his skin.

Jo looked down at the line of powder left and shrugged. She bent down and took her entire line before righting herself and cleaning her nose off. She narrowed her eyes at the sheer elation that filled her. Had she not known it was fake- forced upon her due to the drugs-, she would have thought all of her problems had been solved.

“You’re glowing blue,” Toby whispered reverently.

That kind of took her back a few years when Kaidan had said, _“I glow a funny color and make things move_ ,” when she had asked if he was sick. Scrunching her eyebrows together, she focused on the metal on the floor in front of her and, almost immediately, it rose in front of her.

That was about the time that she realized she had the attention of everyone in the warehouse.

She set it down again before walking forward to speak to them.

“Your walk…” Toby whispered, a huge grin on his face, “You can walk right.”

Had he not said anything, she might not have noticed.

Jo (now even refusing to consider herself Mimi, even in her mind) stood before her followers (her mind supplied the word _minions_ , but that was something she would keep to herself). “We all are bound together,” she informed them, her hands letting off small discharges of blue power, “and the name we have must gain the respect that it is due. Whether by force or deceit, it doesn’t matter. The Tenth Street Reds will be respected and feared.”

“You’ll lead us there, Mimi!” Curt cried out, only to be answered with the loud agreements of the others.

“I will, just not by that name. From here on out, I am Jo and we are the Reds!” she cried out, holding her right fist high in the air.

The gang all answered her cry with one of their own, “We are the Reds!”

As Jo lowered her fist, she smiled triumphantly at the sight of everyone committing themselves to her cause.

She could learn to like that.


	14. CHAPTER 14

Kaidan eyed his meager rations the same way he had taken to looking at them since Vyrnnus had decided he should only have half of his normal intake- in the back of his mind, he was grateful that it was the last day of the punishment.

Every meal was the same as well.

 Kaidan would slowly eat his food- if only to make it last longer and to fool his body into thinking it was eating more than it really was- and Rahna would always try to get him to take some of hers. Of course, he never accepted what she offered him and he had good reasons not to.

For one, he couldn’t take food from his girlfriend (and what a delight it was to be able to call her that in his mind and to the rest of their little group).

Second, he couldn’t risk her getting her rations halved as well- even had she _not_ been his girlfriend.

Finally, well, he could all but _feel_ their new Commander’s eyes on him. He wasn’t about to give the Turian the pleasure of knowing how horrible it truly was that he couldn’t eat.

It was only a week, after all.

Of course, given the fact that, by the time breakfast and lunch passed on that first day, Kaidan had felt as though he was starving to death and tired beyond anything he had ever experienced. He had never been so happy for seven days to pass.

None the less, Vyrnnus had pushed him harder and harder- pushed them _all_ harder and harder, in fact. Kaidan was pretty sure that, even had he been eating normally, he’d’ve been just as tired as the others.

Pushing around his soup with his spoon, he felt more than a little troubled by the fact that he hadn’t been able to help Rahna out the entire week. He was barely able to complete his own tasks- let alone help her out with hers.

“Alenko!” the increasingly familiar bark of Vyrnnus echoed across the dining hall, “report to my office- ASAP.”

Looking down at his unfinished half-rations, he felt even more disheartened than he had all week. Rahna squeezed his leg and nodded at him encouragingly before he stood up and took his tray with him.

 

He stood at attention in the doorway of Vyrnnus’ office, trying his best not to sway from exhaustion. It had become something of a challenge for Kaidan not to show any weakness to the Turian in front of him and, thus far, he was succeeding.

“How old are you, boy?” Vyrnnus snapped suddenly, not looking up from the terminal he was sitting behind.

“Fifteen, sir,” Kaidan answered, looking just over Vyrnnus’ left shoulder.

Vyrnnus nodded before picking up a glass and filling it with water before setting it down on his desk. “Do you know what I find interesting about you, Alenko?” he all but sneered.

Kaidan took a few calming breaths before he could say something rash. Finally, he asked, “Would you like me to answer that honestly, sir?” He had gotten pretty good at stifling the sarcasm over the last week, but it still slipped through sometimes.

“Okay.”

“Nothing- I think you find absolutely _nothing_ interesting about me and the rest of us here.”

Vyrnnus stared at him for a long minute before nodding his head. “You’ve gone a week with half the rations of an already insufficient portion of food for a biotic.”

“Those were your orders…Commander.”

“Yet your biotics are still stronger than your classmates.” He eyed Kaidan suspiciously before gesturing to the water on his desk. “Take the glass.” As Kaidan reached forward to take it, Vyrnnus growled a warning before backhanding him. “With your biotics, boy!”

Frowning, Kaidan accessed his biotics and began the process of pulling the glass to him…when he felt a resistance. Looking up, he realized that Vyrnnus was cloaked in the same blue aura that always surrounded him when accessing biotics. Deepening his concentration, he pulled harder on the glass with his biotics. There was a little give before resistance was, once again, met.

Kaidan felt something come from his nose but gave it only enough attention to wipe it away- trying to out pull Vyrnnus. However, no amount of concentration on Kaidan’s part could out-power a biotic with an amplifier.

Finally, Vyrnnus waved his hand. “Enough.” As Kaidan let the dark energy dissipate, Vyrnnus nodded. “Full rations starting tomorrow. I expect you to keep your attitude back in your bunk. Dismissed.”

Kaidan leaned against the wall just outside of Vyrnnus’ office and continued to wipe the blood that was freely flowing from his nose. He had never been so exhausted in his life. Somehow, he had a suspicion that things were only going to get more difficult.


	15. Chapter 15

Kaidan practically inhaled his next meal when he was allowed full rations. Rahna smiled kindly beside of him and leaned briefly against him before pulling away. A treacherous part of his mind thought that she was so happy that he was allowed to eat again was so she would get more help and wouldn't get into trouble.

He pushed away the thought quickly.

"Have you heard anything from your parents recently?" Rahna asked quietly.

Taking a deep breath to try and dislodge the clump that had suddenly formed in his throat, he shook his head. Without thinking, he found his hand in his pocket, running his fingers over the old, beat-up necklace that he couldn't seem to get rid of. "No. You?"

Rahna shook her head as well. "They never answer any of the messages that I send them. They promised to keep in touch, but they don't. I don't understand."

 _"I must be broke…'s the only thing that makes sense,"_ he remembered being said in the voice of a sweet, broken little girl. How apt that it should apply to his life…after all this time.

He wondered how Mimi had turned out- where she ended up. He liked to imagine that she was taken in by a nice family that would love her. He hoped that she was happy.

After he realized that he was supposed to say something, he cleared his throat. "Maybe they're just afraid."

Hendel Mitra (one of the guys in their class) leaned forward, an eyebrow cocked curiously. "Why would they be?"

Kaidan took a drink of water as he tried to organize his thoughts. "It's something my dad said before he sent me here. He said that biotics are still really new and people are afraid. Maybe because they think we can read minds or something else that would be awesome if it was true."

Rahna shuddered visibly and rubbed her hands together. "I hope momma and poppa don't really think those things." She looked miserably down at the remainder of her food.

"Hey," Kaidan murmured gently, wrapping an arm around her to pull her to him. "That's probably not what it is. It was just an idea."

Hedel watched them carefully, his eyes slightly narrowed. A few times, Kaidan saw that the other boy opened his mouth to say something, but decided to close it before anything came out.

"What're you playing with in your pocket, Kaidan?" Rahna asked, pulling slightly away from him.

Feeling his heart constrict, he pulled out the old necklace.

Hendel and Rahna both stared at it, confused. "Why do you have a necklace?" Rahna asked.

"And who is _M_?" Hendel asked.

Kaidan could think of two ways out of the situation he was in. He could lie- saying something lame about, since his middle initial was _M_ , it was the reason he had it. However, he wasn't much of a liar, so he told the truth (just not the whole truth).

"Right before I came here, I was friends with this little girl who was sick," he explained, realizing that, so far, he had done nothing but lie. "Before I left, she gave me the necklace and asked that I'd remember her- in case no one else did."

Rahna pouted out her bottom lip as though that was the sweetest thing she had ever heard in her entire life. Kaidan couldn't help but breathe an internal sigh of relief as he saw any sign of hurt and betrayal leave her eyes.

"Did she get better?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't know- I like to think so, but I don't know."

* * *

Mimi decided that, while she enjoyed the high that red sand had offered her- the feeling of power and the ability to walk just like everybody else-, she decidedly hated coming down afterwards. That left her two options- either never let herself _not_ be high, or just don't get high in the first place.

She was pretty sure that she was leaning towards not getting high.

Toby, however, was completely thrilled about the sand.

"Frank, Curt, Jordan," she called over to the boys three of the boys she had taken with her on the last mission. When they stopped in front of her, she looked them over- up and down. "You boys care to do me a favor?"

Frank, not a bad looking guy with his dark hair and brown eyes, gave her smirk that she was pretty sure she could get used to. "Name it."

"I want you get Ana ready," she informed them, handing them each a knife. "Make sure you get her prepared for what's going to happen- remember what I went through."

The boys nodded. "Hey, M…Jo?" Frank asked, stepping towards her- into her personal space. "You gonna watch?"

She could practically feel Toby's eyes burning into the back of her skull as she stepped even closer to Frank. "I'm not much of a watch and see kinda girl, but, for you, maybe I'll make an exception."

* * *

**_A/N:_ ** **_Hendel Mitra is a real character in the Mass Effect Universe (in the books)._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hendel Mitra is a real character in the Mass Effect Universe (in the books).


	16. Chapter 16

At no point in time could Kaidan have ever said that he enjoyed BAat, but he could say, without a doubt, that he liked it a lot more than when Vyrnnus took over as the instructor. He (meaning the _resplendent_ Commander Vyrnnus) even went so far as to combine different groups together to where there were an even twenty students learning how to control their ever expanding powers.

The following six months had gotten worse as Vyrnnus settled into his position. In that time, six kids had been hospitalized for everything from broken bones to persistent nose bleeds. Kaidan had lost meal privileges another five times and had even been given a restriction of liquids- and once had been denied sleep for two days. Nevertheless, he refused to show weakness to the smug, vindictive Turian.

During those times the he wasn’t allowed to have things that his body so desperately needed, Vyrnnus liked to push him harder- he did the same for every other student in similar circumstances. Almost every time, the other students would break down into tears at least once- beg him for some small, kind act of mercy.

But not Kaidan.

He was pretty sure that he was figuring Vyrnnus out. The Turian respected strong biotic power- especially in circumstances when it should be faltering. He respected confidence- but demanded submission…pliability.

It was a thin line to walk- hence the reason why Kaidan had been denied food and water a few times-, but he was slowly figuring it out.

 

* * *

 

“The new implant will be available for use in the next two weeks,” a woman informed the gathered group, not looking up from her datapad. “I’m thinking January 14th will be the day we begin the amplifier surgeries. I would prefer subjects to be at least sixteen.”

The gathered group- mostly human, but the Turian mercs that Conatix had hired as teachers were there as well- all nodded their heads appreciatively.

“And the expected results?” one of the men asked, raising his eyebrows.

“We estimate a 215% increase in power output as compared to the L1 configuration.” At her words, every single person nodded appreciatively.

The man who asked the first question- the one in charge-, looked to the Turians with raised eyebrows. “I believe that the student’s lunch hour is over- I believe it’s time that they were back in class.”

The Turians nodded their heads before standing and taking their leave.

Once gone, the man turned his attention back to the woman. “We expect results,” the same man informed the woman. “We would like to train them to take the place of soldiers in the Alliance.”

The woman finally looked up, her eyes wide. “Excuse me?”

“Why should we ask our men and women to fight and die for the Alliance when we have biotics that can go in and wipe out an entire platoon of enemy combatants?” At her stunned stare, he continued, “I’m not saying we fill the ranks with these people- we wouldn’t want them in the higher ranks, of course-, but what other practical use is there of them?”

The woman looked over the others gathered, and was even more stunned to realize that none of them disagreed. “They are human beings as well as you or I,” she murmured.

“Mark my words, Doctor, within the next decade- maybe two-, the Alliance will have biotics on the frontlines on ground units.”

“Is that how you teach these children?” she demanded, looking helplessly from face to face. “Are they taught to think their only use is on a battlefield? If the Alliance knew-“

“Ah, but they won’t,” the man smirked, standing. “Remember that you signed a confidentiality agreement when you were hired to Conatix. You would not be the first to try to bring the Alliance’s attention to our doorstep. We have side-stepped it once, and we can side-step it again. Now, there is only one question left to be answered.”

“What’s that?”

The man walked to her. “Do you continue to work here, or do we let you go?”

They stared at each other for a long time before she bowed her head in submission. “I want to be the one to do the first implant surgery.”

The man snapped his fingers and a woman almost instantly jumped to her feet with a datapad for the other woman. After she had taken it, he informed her, “I figured you might. His name is Alenko- we want him to be the first. He shows an uncanny ability that isn’t present in the other subjects.”

Part of her wanted to scream out, _He’s a teenager- not some_ subject _in a damn experiment_ , but she did no such thing.

“Have him ready at 0800 on the fourteenth- I’ll send a checklist over in the coming days.”

“Good. You’re dismissed.”

The woman held her datapads to her chest and scurried from the room with as much dignity as she could. She felt as though she had just darkened her soul by agreeing not to inform the Alliance and she would spend the rest of her life trying to erase the taint.

 

* * *

 

It had gotten cold.

She had not thought ahead far enough to anticipate the cold.

Her group looked for her for guidance- despite the fact that she was younger than most of them- and she was damn sure going to deliver.

Running her fingers through her short, blond hair, she eyed the shop on the other side of the street. It had been closed for three hours, but she wanted to wait at least another hour- let midnight come. Mimi- _Jo_ , she reminded herself viciously- had watched the police patterns on Ninth Street and there was a patrol that would come around at 11:30- and she didn’t want to risk the cop seeing her shadow in the shop.

“Hey, JoJo,” Toby greeted her- startling her actually- as he wrapped his arm around her slender waist.

“What are you doing here, Toby? I told everyone that this was a solitary mission,” she snapped.

He gave her an exasperated look as he rolled his eyes. “And how, exactly, are you going to carry so many coats by yourself? You walk slow as it is, no offence- you’d be positively snail-like with all that extra weight.”

This was a point when she had to decide if what he had said was an insult or not.

On one hand, even without a bad leg, given her size, she would struggle under the weight of thirty coats. On the other hand, she couldn’t afford to show weakness.

With that, her decision was made.

From the back of her jeans, she pulled the small pistol she had managed to commandeer from one of her missions and pressed it to Toby’s temple. Leaning forward, she eyed him as though he was something dirty. “I didn’t ask- nor do I need your _help_ , Finch,” she hissed, making a show of turning the safety off. “Do you know what the trigger weight is of this pistol?”

“No,” he gasped.

“Do you wanna find out- I’m not too sure either.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” he whimpered, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry- I didn’t mean in offence or to sound like I was questioning your abilities.”

Narrowing her eyes, she lowered the pistol and turned the safety back on before putting it back in its place against the small of her back. “Good,” she said simply. He hadn’t expected her to apologize, and she wasn’t planning on it.

She wouldn’t have really shot him.

Honestly.

Well…at least that’s what she told herself.

“Well, since you’re here, you can stay and help. It’s not time yet, but you can stand watch. Our friend in police blue shouldn’t come back for a second scout, but you can’t be too careful with those law bastards.”

“Thank you, Jo,” Toby murmured.

She wasn’t sure whether he was thanking her for his life or for letting him stick around. And, at that point, it really didn’t matter.

“Let’s just go get those damn coats,” she muttered, unwilling to answer his gratitude.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be aware that this is kinda dark and should be read with caution.

No, nervous wasn't even in the _realm_ of his feelings at that point.

He was nervous- terrified.

Never before in his life had he ever had a surgery.

Especially not one that was as incredibly… _invasive_ as the one that he was waiting to begin.

"You're going to be okay," Rahna murmured quietly, squeezing his hand.

A small part of him- just a tiny little voice in the back of his head, really- was pretty sure that she was actually reassuring herself as opposed to him. She wasn't a strong biotic by any means and he protected her from Vyrnnus.

He snarled internally at that voice, reminding it that he was her boyfriend and she was _supposed_ to be worried about him.

Without realizing it, Kaidan's hand trailed down into his pocket to run his fingers over Mimi's necklace. It had become something of a calming talisman- something of a reassurance. Rahna never commented on it, but he could tell that she was less than thrilled that he reached for the necklace before he reached for her.

"You should be heading to breakfast- Vyrnnus won't be too happy if he doesn't see you during morning roll call," he pointed, forcing himself to let go of the necklace.

Rahna nodded sadly and leaned up to give him a small kiss. "I'll see you later," she whispered.

After she walked away, he pulled the necklace from his pocket and squeezed it tight in his hand (he often wondered if, at some point, he might accidentally break it from the pressure of his fist) and closed his eyes.

He wasn't particularly religious- his parent's had never instilled that into him.

But, in that moment as he was waiting to be called into the room where they would install an electronic brain implant and amp port, he grasped that necklace as though it was a Catholic rosary and prayed. He didn't pray to any specific deity- no, he didn't want to limit himself in that way.

"I know that I don't do this a lot- only when I really need something-, but I'm asking for help," he murmured. "I don't care which species you belong to- I don't discriminate. Can you just make sure that I make it through this surgery with as few complications as possible? If this works as well as they say it's going to, I'd like to help people with it eventually.

"And, if you can't make sure that I'll be okay, will you at least watch over Rahna when I'm gone- she needs a lot of help. And, since you're listening, can you keep an eye on Mimi too?" Taking a deep breath, he nodded his head. "Thanks for listening," he murmured, finally opening his eyes.

The director of the program was standing right in front of him, his face blank. When he realized that Kaidan was finished with his strange prayer, he nodded. "Ready, Alenko?"

Kaidan felt his throat close- preventing any words to come out. Instead, he simply nodded.

"Good," the director said, holding open the door for Kaidan to enter. After a brief moment of hesitation, Kaidan entered the room.

* * *

"Hey, Jo!" Toby called over to her.

She looked over her shoulder, searching for his exact location. To her surprise, there was a boy probably a year from 18 pushed down onto his knees in front of Toby and Frank.

It took her a minute, but she made her way over to the stranger and her two favorite boys.

"What do we have here?" she drawled, eyeing the stranger.

"Trespasser," Frank informed her, pushing the stranger in the shoulder.

She cocked her head to the side as she continued to study the boy. "That's it? You know how we deal with trespassers."

"He got caught stealing some of our sand and knocked Jordan flat on his ass," Toby said.

"Ah. Do you know what I do to people who hurt mine?" she asked sweetly to the boy in front of her on his knees.

They boy looked up at her defiantly. "Why the hell should I care? No, wait, let me guess," he sneered. "You go cry to one of these bastards?" He gestured with his head to the boys holding him.

"What's your name?"

"Fuck you, bitch," he snarled, earning a hard cuff in his head from Frank.

She nodded her head and pulled a knife from her pocket. "We can't hurt him too bad and let him go- he'd go snitch to the cops. We can't just let him go- same problem." She ran the blade lightly against her lower lip, contemplating what to do with him. "What to do, what to do?"

"We could kill him," Toby suggested.

She nodded her head in quiet contemplation. "True," she murmured, looking down at the boy. "Or he could be used as a training tool." She glanced up at Frank. "Ana still needs some help, right?" she asked.

"Can't stand making 'em bleed," he acknowledged.

"Okay- that's what he'll be used for. Don't let her kill him- I have something that needs to be done before that happens." She glanced down at the boy. "Well, you have a little more life left."

As she turned to walk away, he informed her, "You're a monster."

"No," she snapped. "I'm a survivor and I protect what's mine."

 _I don't want to be like this,_ a small voice murmured in her head as she continued on her way to find Ana.


	18. Chapter 18

_He looked anxiously around the white room. It was distantly familiar to him- maybe it would be more distinct if it were anything but a bare room._

_As he turned around in a circle, he realized that it wasn’t completely bare and he wasn’t as alone as he thought._

_“Hello?” he called to the small person who’s back was to him._

_The person hopped off of the doctor’s table before turning to him. She greeted him with a small smile. “Kaidan,” she said in way of greeting._

_“Mimi.” She hadn’t aged a day- despite the fact that she was probably twelve or thirteen._

_She walked closer to him, her blond hair swishing with her every movement. “How’ve you been, Kaidan?” she asked._

_“I could ask you the same thing,” he murmured, reaching out to touch her cheek. She leaned her head against his hand._

_Mimi pressed a kiss into his palm. “You’ve kept your promise,” she murmured against his palm._

_He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out her necklace. “Every day,” he informed her reverently._

_“Thank you,” she murmured, stepping from his touch. “Please don’t stop.”_

_Just as she stepped from his view, he called out, “Mimi!” but it was too late._

* * *

 

 

_“Name!” a voice demanded._

_“Kaidan,” he gasped, feeling as though a pair of talons was wrapped around his throat._

_His airway was constricted briefly. “Wrong! Name?”_

_“Kaidan!”_

_Again he was deprived a few seconds worth of breath- but, to his sixteen-year-old brain, it was much longer._

_“Alenko!” he called out as soon as he was able to. “My name is Alenko!”_

_The hands were removed from his neck and he opened his eyes to look into the hawk-like eyes of Vyrnnus._

_“Do you know why I’m here, Alenko?” he demanded._

To make my- _everyone’s_ \- life a living hell _, he thought bitterly._

_“No, sir!” he answered._

To hate us. To torture us. To _kill_ us.

_“I am here to make you the best biotic you can be. Do you know how I’m going to do that?”_

_“No, sir!”_

Starvation. Dehydration. Sleep deprivation.

 _He got closer into Kaidan’s face as he breathed,_ “Good.”

* * *

 

 

_Kaidan had noticed it on and off throughout the years- it was just a glimpse caught every now and then. A flash of red was all that it really was. He had never bothered questioning before. But, his curiosity got the better of him that day._

_“Mom, I have a question,” he informed her._

_Renee Alenko lowered the book she had been reading and smiled at her son. “Yes?”_

_“What’s the red string wrapped around your ankle?”_

_Her smile softened slightly as she set her book aside and gestured him closer so that he would be enveloped in her arms. “Let me tell you a story,” she murmured as she waited for her eight-year-old son to settle in her arms._

_Once she was sure he was comfortable, she began, “Walking home one night, a young boy about your age sees an old man- whose name is Yue Xia Lao- standing beneath the moonlight. The young boy, being curious and worried, stopped to ask the old man if he’s alright. The man explains to the boy that he- the young boy- is attached to his destined wife by a red thread. Yue Xia Lao shows the boy the young girl who is destined to be his wife. Being young and having no interest in having a wife, the young boy picks up a rock and throws it at the girl, running away._

_“Many years later, when the boy has grown into a young man, his parents arrange a wedding for him. On the night of his wedding, his wife waits for him in their bedroom, with the traditional veil covering her face. Raising it, the man is delighted to find that his wife is one of the great beauties of his village, but he notices she wears a jewel on her eyebrow. Asking her why she wears it – she replies that, when she was a young girl, a boy threw a rock and it struck her on the eyebrow and left a scar._

_“The woman is, in fact, the same young girl connected to the man by the red thread shown to him by the old man back in his childhood.  They were connected by the red string of fate.”_

_“But why do you wear a red string?” Kaidan asked._

_“When I was a teenager, I was attacked by a man. Before he could hurt me, a boy a few years older than me hit the man with a pipe and scared him away,” she explained. “After that day, I never really forgot about that boy- just tucked it away in the back of my mind._

_“Then one day, during a weekend, I ran into the boy that saved me- then a man- at a coffee shop not far from my college campus. We sat together and talked for hours. Then, not a year later, we were married and eventually had you,” she explained._

_“So you think you and dad are connected by a red string of fate?”_

_She smiled kindly at her son as she brushed a piece of hair from his face. “The ancient Chinese Proverb says that an invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet- regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break. So I wear the red string to remember that I found the other end.”_

_Kaidan pondered on that silently for a few minutes. “I think I get it.” He turned his head to press a kiss to his mother’s cheek. “Thanks for telling me, mom.”_

_“Never forget to keep an eye out for that invisible red thread, Kaidan. You never know who might be important.”_

 

* * *

 

 

“Alenko- can you hear me?” a voice asked him loudly- aggravating a headache that was pulsing.

“Shh,” he begged, reaching down for the necklace that was in his pants pocket. “Loud.” When he opened his eyes and took stock of everything he was feeling- it was astonishing. He could feel his biotics thrumming in a way that he had never been able to. It was amazing…and distracting.

“What’s your name?” the voice asked- still loudly enough to cause him to flinch.

“Please, not so loud,” he begged in a whisper.

“Your name,” it repeated.

“Kaidan Alenko.”

“Age?”

“Sixteen.”

“Where’re you at?”

“Jump Zero- BAaT.”

The voice, thankfully, didn’t inquire further.

After a few minutes- which Kaidan mostly spent reveling in the new feelings in his body and trying to ignore the pounding in his head-, the doctor asked, “How do you feel, Kaidan?”

“My head hurts,” he informed her, rubbing his temples. “Neck feels kinda funny, but my body feels different.”

“Can you explain?”

“I could always feel my biotics if I concentrated. Now they’re just… _there_ …wanting to be used,” he informed her, running his fingers over the smooth metal of the necklace. “It’s distracting.”

He watched as she took notes on a datapad. “Can you stand?”

Not answering, he sat up- trying to ignore the sudden dizziness that accompanied the motion. He moved his feet to the edge of the bed and attempted to put weight on his legs. His knees promptly gave out. He was caught before he could hit the ground and sat back down on the bed.

“It’s fine,” the doctor assured him. “You just had a major surgery- just take a little while to let your body to adjust the new sensations.

Kaidan laid back down and tightened his fist around the necklace.

He wondered about his dreams- why had he dreamed of little Mimi as opposed to his girlfriend (of Rahna); why had he dreamed of Vyrnnus…

And, more importantly, why had he dreamed of the Red Strong of Fate story?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Red String of Fate story can be found anywhere online, but I pulled the story from http://www.zensationalliving.com/blog/2012/04/the-red-string-of-destiny/ - in case anyone wants to know.
> 
> Mass Effect is property of Bioware.
> 
> The Red String of Fate story is an ancient Chinese Proverb: “An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break.”


	19. Chapter 19

It had been the same thing over the course of a month.

Jo would order Toby to take little Ana to the prisoner and she would set to work- albeit more than a little unwilling. After about an hour of Ana _working on_ their guest, Jo would have Toby take Ana away to clean up and calm down. It was more than a little clear that she wasn’t cut out for the blood work of the operation.

And, just as she did every time, Jo made sure to take care and clean up their guest.

For the most part, he remained silent and just glared at her with open disdain. However, there were other times when he looked at her pityingly and spoke.

“How old are you?” he asked after she had cleaned up the blood around his mouth.

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes as she cleaned a cut above his right eye. Then, after she rinsed out the rag she was using, she looked at him. “Twelve,” she answered before she went back to work.

They both pretended like she didn’t notice his mouth fall open at her word. She knew that she looked younger, but appeared older due to her position in the Reds.

“I’m seventeen.”

“Good news,” she answered, no expression crossing her face. “I placed a bet with myself and I won.”

If it had been in different circumstances, and she had had a different expression, it might be construed as a joke.

He fell silent for a few more minutes as she worked on a particularly painful cut on his stomach. After he was able to unclench his teeth, he asked, “Why do you do this?”

“This?” she asked, looking up at him briefly.

“I’d like to say all of this, but I’ll narrow it down. Why do you come over and take care of the cuts that that other girl does? You’re the one who’s keeping me here and having her do it.”

This was something that had her split.

The part of her that was Jo- leader of the Reds- wanted nothing more than to let him bleed out and suffer in the process. She wasn’t sadistic by nature, but he had done wrong by her people and she was obligated to repay the favor.

However, the part of her that was Mimi- the part that wouldn’t be squashed and disappear, no matter how hard she tried- didn’t want him to suffer in his death, if he had to die at all. She didn’t want the blood of another death- this one a senseless dead- to be on her hands.

Needless to say, she was walking a fine line before deciding which side she would eventually take.

Finally, “I am a lot of things- and cruel is one of them, I admit-, but I won’t have you starving or bleeding out. When it comes time for you to die, I promise that it’ll be quick and painless.”

He was once again struck speechless. Then, “Why bother with all of this- the gang, the blood…all of it?”

She sat the rag down in the bucket of water and nodded her head. “My life was chosen a long time ago. A life of fighting and death will be mine until it’s my turn to die.” She gave a humorless chuckle. “And, if you believe in such things, maybe my next life too.”

“You could be a doctor,” he pointed out. “You’ve been really good at keeping my cuts clean and I’ve seen you taking care of your…friends…when something happens to them.”

She chuckled again. “No. That might be better for Ana, but not for me. If I could find a skilled enough hacker, I’d have her going to school for it.”

It was only an instant, but she was certain that she saw a flash of hope in his face. “And if I told you that _I_ was pretty good at doing just that.

Raising her eyebrows, she asked, “You’re telling me that you could forge a birth certificate and school records, and hack into the databases that contain her DNA records and alternate them- or just plain erase them- and make new ones?”

Brown eyes met with green. “Yes.”

“What’s your name?” she demanded after a few seconds of contemplation.

“Jer.”

“You got family that could be looking for you?”

“No. Dad left when I was little and mom, well, mom’s up to her elbows in kids and no worried about one that’s nearly 18 anyway.”

She eyed him up and down. “If I agree to this and you betray me or hurt one of mine, you do realize that your life is immediately forfeit, right?”

“Yes.”

Nodding, she eyed him up and down. “Then what do you need to do it, Jer?”

 

It took three days to get everything that Jer said he needed to hack into whatever systems that he needed to do what Jo asked. When everything was set up in one of the rooms in the warehouse- one without window’s and only one exit-, Jo had Frank and Toby bring him up to the room. She brought her knife out from the waistband on her pants and held it in front of Jer’s eyes.

“You will suffer a long, drawn out death if you betray me. You won’t be the first guy I’ve killed. You hear me?” she demanded as she drew the business end of her knife lightly down the side of his face- hard enough to leave a red mark but not enough to draw blood.

“Just tell me what you want done,” he said, not twinging a bit from her threat.

She walked around him and used her knife to cut through the ropes holding his wrists together. She then gestured to Frank to take him over to the chair in front of the monitors.

“I want all records erased and a birth certificate altered for a Memory Jordana Shepard. I want any DNA records that are in the system erased. I want nothing more than a birth certificate on record,” she ordered.

Saying her name- her _old_ name- had felt strange as it stumbled through her lips.

“She someone important?” Jer asked as he began a complicated set of computer mumbo-jumbo.

Jo said nothing as he delved deep into the reaches of the computer system. Finally, her birth certificate was pulled up.

“What d’you want changed?” he asked.

After a moment, she said, “The parents. I want no names under either of them.”

Jer hesitated only a moment before doing exactly as she asked. She watched as he continued down the rabbit hole and erased all record- save for that birth certificate- of her. It was rather liberating to think that she was untraceable.

When he finished, he looked up at her. “Now what?”

Now what, indeed.

“Toby,” she called out- not too loudly, since she knew he was probably lurking somewhere close by.

“Jo?” he asked after a few seconds.

She turned to him. “Have Ana meet me outside of this room. We need to talk about her future with the Reds.”


	20. Chapter 20

Kaidan enjoyed spending more time alone than he had previously. It might have had something to do with the fact that he kept shocking everyone else when they got too close.

Unfortunately, his time alone might have had something to do with the headaches that resulted from all the extra biotic training he was receiving due to being the only one of his friends to receive the implant.

That had to be the worst part.

He was spending _hours_ of extra time Vyrnnus.

He had lost count of how many times the Turian had gotten inches from Kaidan’s face as he screamed insults at him. Most of the insults revolved around him being a “weak, good-for-nothing human with the biotic strength of a common varren.”

Kaidan had had to look up what exactly a varren was on the extranet. All he could think of as a description of it was a vicious-looking dog.

There was one thing that he would never admit to anyone- at least not to anyone that was on Jump Zero. Of course, there was only a very quiet part of his mind that he thought it, but it was a large enough part for him to notice. He was almost thankful to Commander Vyrnnus.

Oh, not for the pushing him until his nose was gushing out enough blood to require him to visit the med bay, or when the Turian revoked Kaidan’s food privileges. No, he was thankful because he could feel his biotics strengthening. It almost felt like he was working out a muscle that was an integral part of his body. Yeah, he was going through hell in order to achieve that strength, but, maybe- eventually-, it would be worth it…in the end.

 

Vyrnnus was back to being close to Kaidan’s face. This session was the easiest he had had since getting the implant. Two other people had been implanted besides Kaidan- one of whom was Hendel Mitra. However, Kaidan had faltered in his tug-of-war with Hendel- allowing the other boy to win.

“Do you know what you are, Alenko?” Vyrnnus spat. When Kaidan remained silent, the Turian wrapped his talons around his throat. “I asked you a question, _boy_.”

“I am weak, Sir,” Kaidan answered, struggling, some-what, with his ability to breathe.

“Do you honestly expect me to believe that Mitra could have actually bested you at this exercise?”

These were questions that usually got Kaidan into one trouble.

If he said yes, that meant he would get berated for letting someone with a newer implant best him. If he said no, he would be berated for _allowing_ someone to win the exercise when it wasn’t actually their accomplishment. Both of which usually landed him extra sessions or rationed food intake.

“I wouldn’t presume to make you believe anything, Sir,” he responded- evading the question all together.

Vyrnnus stared at him silently for a few tense moments before releasing Kaidan’s throat without another word. He walked back to the front of the room and surveyed the three boys before him. “Mitra, Adkins, you’re free to go. Alenko, stay.”

As the other two shuffled out, they gave him sympathetic looks, but said nothing. It wasn’t often (meaning close to never) that Vyrnnus let them out early, and they weren’t going to risk their freedom for Kaidan.

When the door shut, Kaidan straightened his shoulders slightly and kept his gaze firmly on the wall in front of him.

“You think you’ve gotten smarter, don’t you?” Vyrnnus asked him.

Maker, how Kaidan wanted to say yes- of course, he’d seen how _that_ played out for him as well. “No, Sir.”

“Why did you let the exercise proceed as long as it did?”

“Sir, I-“

Vyrnnus stepped into Kaidan’s line of sight and held up a hand. “It would do well for you to tell the truth. Why did you let Mitra win?”

“Hendel… _Mitra_ is not a bad biotic. If I had won the exercise in a limited amount of time, you would have punished him for not pushing…er, _pulling_ harder.”

“And why did you let him win?”

“Honestly, because, no matter how well I do, you still find something wrong with how I use my biotics. I might as well take the fall in order to let the others off.”

“I could punish them out of spite so you wouldn’t do it again,” Vyrnnus pointed out.

“I would just make sure that I was more careful next time so that I wouldn’t get caught.” This was the most insolent he had been to Vyrnnus is a long time and he held his breath as he waited for the Turian’s response.

The two stared at each other for several tense moments- to the point that Kaidan was certain that his lungs were going to burst. He silently scolded himself for being so mouthy with Commander.

“Get out of here, Alenko,” Vyrnnus finally snapped, turning away.

With a (hopefully) silent exhalation of breath, Kaidan turned on his heel and walked as quickly as he could without looking like he was running to the door. As soon as he exited, he ran promptly into Rahna. Stepping back, he glanced to the door and gestured her to follow him into one of the nearly empty common areas.

Rahna looked him over- it wouldn’t have been the first time that Vyrnnus had left marks on Kaidan. He was a big fan of grabbing his students by the throat and hauling them up to his eyelevel (hence the marks that she could, surely, see still showing angrily on his throat). She looked at him questioningly.

“It’s fine- I’m fine.”

“Hendel told me what happened. I was worried about what Commander Vyrnnus was going to do to you.” When Kaidan hugged her to him (somehow these encounters always ended with _him_ comforting _her_ ), she murmured, “I was afraid he was going to hurt you.”

“Don’t worry- I can take pretty good care of myself.”

Rahna pulled away and wiped her tears away. “Kaidan, they made my appointment.”

He glanced down, surprised.

“Your sixteenth birthday?”

“Next week. I go in for my implant the next day.”

Kaidan pulled her to him once again.

Rahna thought that classes with Vyrnnus were hell- he hoped she could survive the true hell that followed the implant surgery.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually finished a few days ago, but I decided to release it today since it's Shepard's birthday and it fit into the storyline.

The Reds had fallen into a routine that suited them. It had taken a minute, but Jo had figured out who did what best. Now there were four patrols running six hours each. They were protected twenty-four seven. In each group, there was at least one person who was proficient with a knife, another with a gun, a decent manipulator, and a set of muscles. Of course, there was always one complete patrol at their home base. If a member of a group had taken any kind of recreational drug within twelve hours of a patrol, they were sidelined- Jo’s rule-, and replaced with another.

If a person went out on patrol without informing anyone that they had done a drug and it was found out, they were immediately taken to Jo for punishment.

That had happened a grand total of one time.

The boy- and that was what he was, being no older than fourteen- had to be carried away by his patrol’s muscle. The punishment had lasted a week and consisted of being denied food and water. Not to mention the fact that Jo had paid a great deal of attention to him with her knife. Truth be told, she hated to do it, but she couldn’t afford to allow anyone to undermine her authority.

If there was one thing that everyone needed to remember was that Jo didn’t tolerate anyone risking harm to her people- even if that risk was from someone within the Reds.

They got one warning.

No one wanted to find out what happened after that.

Besides the patrols, there were seven people enrolled in different programs at the local colleges. Ana was learning to be a doctor, another was learning computer engineering- Jo was still slightly unsure of Jer-, another two in political sciences, and three in law enforcement. What better way to keep track of their local police force than to have her own people in it?

And Jo's position in the Reds was to oversee it all. She was their leader. It was her job to make sure that everything went smoothly. It didn't matter that she was younger than everyone else. They all looked to her. And she would be damned before she failed them.

 

* * *

 

Jo sat behind a desk that one of the patrols had managed to bring back. It was usually reserved for the members in school, but she sometimes commandeered it when necessary. At present, she was looking through a hand full of paper work and nodding as she took notes on a separate sheet of paper.

There was something refreshing to her to actually, physically, write things down on pieces of paper.

Toby had once asked her why she insisted upon using actual paper as opposed to datapads-it really was difficult to find paper and pens. Jo had given a snort. "Jer is a seventeen-year-old hacker that managed to infiltrate and change medical, birth, and school records in less than an hour. It may seem paranoid, but I'd rather not give professional techs the opportunity to hack into our files." Let alone rival gangs.

That had been the only time it was discussed.

“How’s school going?” she asked as she made another note on her paper. Ana didn't say anything but shifted uneasily, enough so that Jo looked up from her paperwork. "I asked you a question, Anabelle. It is rude not to answer."

"It's fine," Ana murmured, refusing to look Jo in the eye.

Jo fixed her with a hard glare. "If you're having problems, I need to know about them. I am deeply invested in seeing you succeed." She flipped through a few of the papers to one piece of paper that had a bunch of numbers on it. "I'm sure we could come up with a few extra credits if you need a tutor."

It really wouldn't have been difficult. She would just ask Jer to hack a few bank accounts and take a little bit of money from each. She'd just have to make sure that he made the signal untraceable.

"Oh, no, it's nothing like that! My grades are all fine."

"Then tell me what it is," Jo ordered, setting aside the page with the Reds' current finances.

"My instructors all know that I'm younger than eighteen," Ana informed Jo in a small voice as she dug around in her school bag.

"I am well aware of what your instructors do and do not know about you- I am the one who had you enrolled after all."

Ana blushed furiously and nodded her head. "You're right, Jo, I'm sorry. What I meant was that, in order to do some of the class activities, I need a parent's signature," she murmured as she laid a datapad on the desk in front of her.

Jo picked up the datapad up before going over to the locked filing cabinet. After unlocking it, she looked through until she finally pulled a file. Sitting back down, she pulled a birth certificate. She looked it over before picking up the datapad and signing.

"It's done. If they have any questions or any other problems, have them contact me." She looked back to the papers she had been working on- a clear sign of dismissal. As Ana stood, and turned to leave, Jo stopped her as she said, "Next time you're having problems that need to be addressed, do not hesitate to bring them to me. I will not tolerate you failing."

Jo sighed and leaned back in her chair as Ana walked away.

"If it doesn't rain, it pours," she murmured to herself, pulling her blonde hair from its ponytail and running her fingers through it. She contemplated giving up the paperwork for the remainder of the day and partaking in some Sand. However, if she did that- she would get behind and there was a chance that something could go wrong with the operation.

She wouldn't tolerate that.

Settling down for what was bound to be several hours of work, she murmured, "Happy thirteenth birthday to me."

 


	22. Chapter 22

They were in the bullet room.

Oh, it wasn’t called the bullet room. The room was actually BR5215. Of course, the only ones to actually call it that were the Conatix personnel and the Turian mercs. The kids, however, just called it the bullet room solely for the fact that it was one of the only places on Gagarin Station that was safe for live ammunition.

Kaidan stood, alone, on the far end of the room while the others looked on from the side of the room. Vyrnnus stood facing Kaidan with his pistol drawn.

“The task is _not_ difficult,” he barked to the class. “All you have to do is maintain a barrier.”

Kaidan hated barrier work. It was easy to get distracted and accidentally drop the barrier. It was easy to just run out of energy.

Not to mention, it did nothing to halt or distract the attacker. It was just, purely, defensive.

He threw up his barrier and gritted his teeth in concentration. He just had to hold until the pistol ran out of ammo- approximately 15 shots…unless Vyrnnus put in the extended mag (then it would be 25).

This was the third time he’d had this test. The first time, he’d only been able to hold against seven shots before his energy dropped. The second time, he had enough energy for twelve. He felt confident that he could hold…as long as there were only 15 shots.

The first shot rang out and Kaidan felt the impact on his barrier, even as, in the back of his mind, he registered Rahna’s gasp.

The first shot was never bad.

The next shots came in rapid succession. Then they were up to twelve.

He could feel his energy lagging.

A huge part of him wanted to just let the barrier fall and take the shot. It’d hurt like a bitch…but it wouldn’t be the first time (and it probably wouldn’t be the last time either). However, another part of him (smaller, but stronger) wanted to prove to the Commander that humans could persevere…that _he_ would persevere.

He would _not_ be intimidated.

Kaidan drew every iota of energy he could to him, leveled his gaze at Vyrnnus, and held on.

Now, Kaidan wasn’t sure if he imagined it or not, but he thought that he saw the Turian give a small nod of approval before he released the final three bullets.

Even after the final bullets, Vyrnnus and Kaidan stood, still at attention (Vyrnnus with his gun up and Kaidan with his barrier). At that point, it was almost a battle of wills.

After a minute or two, Vyrnnus lowered his gun and nodded. “At ease, Alenko. Bars on the table- max…six,” he stated before turning to look at the others.

Once Kaidan released his barrier, he stumbled a bit, trying to stop the room from spinning. He was, honestly, trying to keep himself from passing out. After taking a moment (thankfully a moment that he didn’t get berated for), he walked over to the table and picked up all six energy bars.

“Sanders,” Vyrnnus snapped out.

Kaidan watched as Zack took up position and brought up his barrier.

The first shot rang out.

Zack and he weren’t super close, but they had hung out a few times. He was one of the youngest amongst their class- meaning he was the last to get his implant. Meaning he wasn’t as experienced in using or controlling it.

He wasn’t ready for this level of barrier work.

The shots continued as Kaidan ate his energy bars. He already knew how this would end- a trip to the medbay for Zack after being berated by Vyrnnus.

With the fifth shot, his barrier began fluctuating.

With the sixth, it was flickering.

With the seventh, Zack was shot.

Had he maintained his position, he would have been shot in the arm. Unfortunately, to the horror of all the humans in the room, he had stumbled and took the shot right through the throat.

As Zack crumpled to the floor, Kaidan rushed forward to Rahna as almost everyone else stood still. She buried her face into his chest before he could say a word and sobbed.

Vyrnnus lowered his gun casually as he looked at the dead boy.

“Take this as a lesson,” the Commander informed them. “I am not here to coddle you; I am here to teach you. Life will not go easy on you and nor will I. If you are too weak to survive, we _will_ remedy that.

“Class dismissed.”


	23. Chapter 23

Jo hated to leave the warehouse during the day. Well, honestly, she hated to leave the warehouse at all, but she refused to tell anyone. Her group all had gotten used to seeing her slowly limp along and they got over staring at her relatively quickly (especially when threats from her or one of her boys focused on relatively important- or sensitive- appendages). But, out in the _civilized_ world, everyone stared at the poor, little crippled girl.

They looked at her as though she were someone to be pitied…or taken care of.

Thus was the case on the day she had scheduled a lunch meeting with one of her boys that she had placed in the police.

Just like any other time, she tried to ignore the looks that everyone gave her as she slowly limped behind the waitress showing her to her table. She was doing just fine until someone stuck out their foot and tripped her. Embarrassment flared as she landed awkwardly on the hard concrete and had to struggle to get her legs under herself.

“Apparently we haven’t learned anything over the centuries,” a pretty young woman sneered. “People like you should have been taken care of at birth- or before, if your _issues_ had been detected.” Jo stopped for a moment before continuing to try to get to her feet. “What, are you deaf too?”

Once she was able to get to her feet, she faced the pretty brunette. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about,” she informed her, trying her best not to get pissed. It had been quite a while since she had been so insulted.

The woman looked to her lunch companion (who looked thoroughly uncomfortable) with a grin before looking back to Jo. “So you’re mentally handicapped as well.” She looked Jo square in the eye and stated (with slow, over exaggerated enunciation), “People like you- the handicapped- should never have been allowed to become a tax on our society.”

Jo ground her teeth, reminding herself that killing the ignorant woman was not an appropriate response to her hateful words. “You don’t even know anything about me.”

The woman sneered, “You’re nothing but a cripple- a burden to everyone around you.”

This woman reminded her too much of Ryan (and it wasn’t like she had handled _that_ problem effectively- what with her killing him and all). Part of her wanted to curl into a tight little ball and cry like a baby. Another part wanted to stab her.

Who was this woman to judge her? Jo was reliant on no one but herself. So what if she had a limp? That didn’t make her a burden.

The last part of her wanted to just walk away.

Jo decided to walk away.

The woman snorted a derisive laugh. “How typical. The lame don’t even bother to defend themselves- always needing someone else to fight their battles. How pathetic.”

Jo felt her hands tighten into fists. _This isn’t the place for a fight,_ she reminded herself bitterly. She couldn’t allow herself to get into an altercation that would result in her boy taking her in.

“Does this make you feel better?” Jo demanded. “Is your life so _pathetic_ that you need to judge and belittle those who are less fortunate than you?”

“I…w-well, I-“

“Yes,” Jo interrupted. “I have a physical disability that impairs my ability to walk. However, my mental facilities are in perfect working order. I do not, nor have I ever, relied on anyone to take care of me.” She glared at the woman with revulsion. “You think my life so pathetic- which is well within your right-, but yours disgusts me. You have so many privileges in your life, but instead of sharing them or being kind, you want to make everyone feel as small and useless as yourself.”

The entire café had fallen silent during her speech. For a brief moment afterwards, silence reigned until people started applauding her. She tried to fight a blush, but her face heated up uncontrollably.

An elderly woman stood up and hugged her tight. “You have such a wonderful way with words, dear. Have you considered a career in public speaking or politics?”

Jo snorted as she stepped away. “No one would want to listen to anything I have to say.”

The older lady shook her head again. “There’s something about you,” she murmured thoughtfully. “When you speak, something about you _makes_ people listen.”

She didn’t quite know how to respond to that.

“Jo!” Looking around, she spotted John making his way to her. “You okay?”

She glanced at the woman who started the altercation before looking back to John. “Yeah, everything’s fine here. Let’s go eat.”


	24. Chapter 24

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Kaidan asked as Rahna curled further into his side.

“I want to help people,” she informed him. “I’ve always been interested in being a doctor.”

Kaidan sighed and pressed a kiss onto the top of her head. “That suits you.”

They both fell silent and Kaidan tried not to hold it against Rahna that she didn’t even bother to ask him what he had wanted to be.

“When I was younger, I wanted to join the Alliance. My dad served and I want to as well.”

“What about now?”

“I don’t think that we have choices now. We’re being trained as biotic units for the Alliance.”

“But if you could choose.”

No one had asked him that in a long time. He didn’t even have an answer for that anymore.

After a long moment, he stated, “I would like to work with electronics. Something about electronics makes sense to me.”

Rahna pressed a kiss into his chest. “What would you have wanted to do in the Alliance?”

“I’ve always been interested in how things are put together- especially as new technology emerges. I don’t know if I would have been interested in being part of a ground team, but I wouldn’t mind being on a ship around the engines.”

“I never would have imagined you being interested in anything like that. You seem like you’d make a good doctor.”

Kaidan tried not to feel irritated with her response. Not to say that he didn’t appreciate what doctors did, or even mildly interested in the skills. However, he didn’t think he even acted like he was interested in the field. It almost seemed like she didn’t pay attention to who he was a person- as opposed to how he focused on her.

“Kaidan, I don’t want to join the Alliance,” she whispered, wiping her eyes with a sniffle. “I just want to go home to my mom and dad.” After a long beat that Kaidan tried to ignore, she continued, “And you. I want you at home with me.”

They sat staring out at the stars in silence for several minutes.

“When I was younger, I wanted to go to space. It always seemed so far away from my window in Vancouver. I read all sorts of books and watched vids about being a hero and saving the galaxy from an unknown danger- saving the girl.”

Rahna let out a small giggle. “That is the silliest thing I have ever heard. Everyone knows nothing like that ever happens.”

That hurt a little. “There was the First Contact War,” he stated.

“But that wasn’t a threat to the galaxy,” Rahna pointed out. “There’s nothing out there that could threaten our galaxy.”

“Never say never. We don’t know everything that’s out there. Who knows, maybe the Geth- or something else like that- will rise up against us.”

Rahna pulled away far enough to frown up at Kaidan. “Don’t talk about things like that, Kaidan. Why does it have to be bad?”

“What do you want to happen?”

She curled back into him, running her finger tips up and down his chest. “I want to leave space- and never, ever come back- and go back to Earth. Then I want to become a doctor, get married, have a kid, and three cats.”

“Just one kid?”

“I couldn’t imagine not have a kid to continue my family bloodline- plus mom and daddy want a grandbaby-, but I couldn’t imagine putting my body through that more than once.”

He couldn’t imagine only having one kid. He was as only child and found it to be lonely at times. That and he was always the center of his parent’s attention. If he so much as sneezed, his mom was right there. Let him miss an assignment in class and his parents were right on him.

Not that that was a bad thing, but he would have appreciated a brother or sister to help split his parents time.

Rahna, too, was an only child. She was doted upon from the day she was born. Apparently she had thrived (even enjoyed) under the attention.

Could he ever truly commit to someone who wanted such different things in life than himself?

Of course, did any of that matter if they truly loved each other?

Relationships were built on compromises.

What bothered him most, though, was the fact that Rahna didn’t even bother to ask him what he wanted to happen- what he wanted out of life.

“A lot can happen in the next few years,” Kaidan mumbled.


End file.
